The REAL Reason You’re Tired & Gaining Fat After 40 | Zane Griggs | Ep. 84

Introduction to Healthy Aging and Metabolic Disease 0:00

The things that killed us 120, 150, 200 years ago before we were 50, 60 or 70 were infectious diseases, were famine, or war. They weren't metabolic diseases because the obesity rate in 1901 was 1% and most cardiologists had never seen a heart attack. What do you think is causing these type of metabolic disease? I think the primary driver is processed food. Joining us today is Zane Griggs, author of Kicking Ass After 50 and host of the Healthy After50 podcast. With over 25 years guiding midlife professionals, he's helping us redefine aging through practical wellness, fitness, and longevity.

I want you to answer this question as honest as possible. How many people do you know from grade school that have passed away already? Many of the people I went to school with, they've died of some form of lifestyle-driven disease. There's at least 10 or 12. When you're working with your clients, what's one of the first steps that you take when it comes to their nutrition? Getting rid of seed oils, limiting processed grains and sugars to as little as possible and sticking to whole foods really is the 1st step.

What's like your number 1 biohack? I would say hormone replacement therapy. And that has been one the most impactful things I have ever done. What are your thoughts on the GOP1 drugs? I think they can be used wisely, like any tool, or they could be abused and overused. And we have so many people now who are already in a position where they feel like they cannot come off of them. What is the true problem with personal training today versus someone like yourself? Welcome to another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast.

I'm your host, Sam Tahata. And as usual, we're bringing experts from all over the world to talk about health, wellness, beauty, and mindset. Today, our guests, this is not your usual typical personal trainer. This is someone who has taken that functional health approach on helping people get well. to personal training. This is someone who's actually taking personal and put the word personal back into personal He's helping people who hit that age, the over the hill age of age 40 and up, maintain themselves in a rejuvenated state.

Today we have Zane Griggs here, man. Pleasure, brother. Thank you. Thank You, Sam. I appreciate that. It's great to be here. Yeah. And brother, I was on your podcast not too long ago, you know, talking about a few things. We kind of got to know each other a little bit more doing your podcasts and you're doing some incredible things, You know. and I told you, as said, when you come here to South Florida to come on the podcast, so I want you to Come to the liquid Vita and kind Of see some of the things that we're Doing because I know you vibe on it.

You're into it, especially when it comes to data. in your health, health and wellness. Absolutely. No, it was a great. I really appreciate you bringing me in and give me the tour and I got to try some of the stuff. Got a DEXA scan, got, you know, some insight on the data your guys are collecting. Really impressed, really impressed. Amazed.

Zane Griggsu2019 Background and Early Health Journey 3:00

You have like this specific focus for people above the age of 40 and how to get their metabolic health and their whole physical health on point. Before we get into that, I want to kind of get to know you a little bit better and for the listeners and viewers to kinda understand what even got you into this whole health of wellness business. Well, it was really just a personal drive or passion about a desire to avoid metabolic disease. So we actually in my early mid twenties, I was watching my uncles, my dad's older brothers struggle with some form of metabolic these heart disease, diabetes.

And I don't want that to be me. And my dad, well, we didn't know everything back, you know, 80s and 90s, it wasn't like perfect. I think we're still learning. But he made an effort with his diet and exercise. So he wasn' having the same issues that they were. or at the same age. And so that told me something like, OK, this is these things can be impacted by the choices we make. and that's when I started. Of course, is this the early mid 90s? So we didn't have the Internet. We could just start looking stuff up.

I certainly didn' have chat GBT. we we I mean, we had encyclopedia. Yeah. You had to read you read some and really the standard I knew the standards recommendations weren't what we needed. That became clear because people who followed them weren't getting the results. And so it was reading alternative health books, asking people questions, every time I met a trainer asking them questions. It was just self-exploration and experimentation to the point of I was following a vegetarian, sometimes vegan diet for about three and a half years until that I found did not work for me.

So I shifted and then became a Trainer in 98. Again, still experimenting, start working with low carb diet as an answer for some of my weight loss clients, but continue to experiment. Intermittent fasting, fasted workouts, just through the years playing with different modalities. I guess, strategies is a better word. And sometimes learning the hard way that you can over leverage those. Yeah. To the point where I actually hit a wall. I was overtaxing metabolic stress, really under fueling, over training for the way I And it taught me some lessons and really, I think, helped me with how I approach my clients now, especially being over 40 and sometimes over 50 and even 60. We don't need to we'd always need a pound ourselves in the paint.

Like when we're 20s and 30s, we can kind of hit things hard, diet harder, work out harder. And then we have some, you know, some quick effects from that. But we rebound faster over forty. Not so much. Those things can actually have a negative impact. That's what I found. It's been a journey of self-experimentation, working with clients one-on-one, which really challenge ideas. It may work with you for a time, but someone else may have worked with the first three people, then the fourth and fifth it doesn't, and then you have to go back to the drawing board.

And so that's kind of been my experience the last 27 years professionally. A lot of experimentation, learning from mistakes, moving forward. But I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it. And it really takes that type of effort to really understand what's going to work, what isn't going work. Now, you said you did the whole vegan thing for about three years, right? Do you eat meat now? Oh, a lot. How was it for those three year? Because in all reality, man, I'll be honest with you, I grew up, my father was a vegetarian.

I've never seen him eat meat. He eats fish and stuff. But I don't know if I could actually do that. At first, you have this cleansing feeling, right? You have because it's a change and your body responds to change. Sometimes you more energy, sometimes you don't. It just depends on what that changes. You feel the negative effects right away and sometimes it takes a while. For me, it took a little while, but I did. I lost a lot of my college muscle when I started doing that. I'd built up the muscle weight.

I built this was probably my 23, 24. Uh, I was hungry pretty often, but I learned how to cook and that's the thing. Had to learn to prepare my own food. Making my almond milk, blending up almonds, adding water banana because it wasn't in the stores. And this is very, It wasn't as common as it is now. It was trendy at the time in some circles, but you really had to, if you wanted to do it healthy. I knew I didn't want to eat processed food. So one thing I learned from it was food, I learnt about food like combining beans and rice every day to try to make the protein I needed.

And this is like way back in the day where things were not readily available like today. Right, no, you didn't have vegetarian options in every restaurant like you do now at all. And so again, it made me pay attention. I was being mindful about my health, and this was one way, even though I think it was going the wrong direction, but it part of my journey. So I don't, I can look back and say, oh yeah, that was probably not ideal. Should have learned a little quicker, should have figured that out a bit sooner, And so it led me to where I am now.

Yeah. And Zayn, I mean, becoming a personal trainer back in the 90s, this is like the years of like all the big bodybuilders like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I remember like back then as like The Flex magazine, Muscle and Fitness, which was a different environment. It wasn't what it is today. it was actually very small. You know, so very broke. Yeah, it was very like Jim, bro. You. Know what I mean? Yeah. It's very, very Jim centric. Very bodybuilder centic.

From Bodybuilding to Functional Training 9:00

And that was where a lot of the information was coming from. What gym did you go to back then? Oh, my gosh. I've been to I I. Been I been I worked in golds. Have worked. In what was that when it came after gold? I can't remember now. Several a few chains. Valley Total Fitness. I never made it to Bally's. I was out in Nashville and we had a few of the standard chains and then I ended up in a, like a private gym. Well, it was just a standalone, local gym and from there, after a couple of years, moved into a Private Training Studio.

And that's where I think my career really took a different turn, where it's around a lot of professionals and really well-educated people and so there's a whole lot more of that. When it just trainers and clients, atmosphere. You know what I mean? And it was one of the early ones in the middle of country. There was a few of those like that Chicago, New York, LA, but this was when the really, you know, early 2000s, 2002, 2003, a training studio wasn't that common, except coastally back then. And so it was a great environment for learning and for kind of honing those those skills, be able to ask questions and kind, you know, learn from each other.

Right. Because you're surrounded by a bunch of professionals. Yeah. And that's and it wasn't as Jimbrough, right? It was little more like there were people there with PhDs or people in their master's degrees. There were. And the clients were more affluent and they were older. And that's when I learned to start working with older clients, people that maybe had some obstacles, some physical issues, or they have metabolic issues or. They just come back from a surgery or struggling with cancer, you know, being cancer treatment.

So it really got me working. With people from what we might call special populations. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, this wasn't like people that are just looking to have those big solid brick arms or big pecs. These are people who are trying to find answers to health. A lot of issues that they're having that can't find an answer to, which is amazing to be one of the individuals to help them navigate and figure out those answers. Now, Zayn, how old are you right now? 54. I'll be 55 in November. And you take very good care of yourself, man, so I condemn you on that.

At age 54, and I want you to answer this question as honest as possible. I'll do my best. So how many people do you know from grade school and up that have passed away already? Oh, there's a handful that I see popping up on Facebook, like so-and-so passed. From grade-school and high- school, I'm sure there is at least There's at least 10 or 12, you know, at minimum that I've heard of, probably many more than I haven't because I grew up in California. I live in Nashville now, 2000 miles away. Um, I'm a little more removed, but I have seen that many of the people I went to school with, they they've died of some sort, some form of lifestyle driven disease.

Yeah. And there's a reason why I asked that question is because. In my 30s, I've had people that I went to grade school with, and I'm not talking about dying from a tragic car accident or something. Okay, those things happen. I talk about people having heart attacks. Type one diabetes or type two diabetes, late adult onset diabetes and letting it get out of control type of deal where eventually they get legs amputated or they eventually end up dying. So when we talk about you taking care of your clients that are 40 and over, there's a reasoning behind that.

And there is a reason why you've decided to put emphasis on that age group. Because I know if I've seen it, you have seen, especially at the age of in your 50s. So, when you hear about those individuals around your age groups that already dying this early, How do you feel about that? It's sad, but it's exactly what, if you will, scared me into this passion or this line of discovery was watching my uncles struggle with these things in their 50s and 60s. And so now it, I know it's unnecessary. I don't believe it is genetic because the things that killed us 120, 150, 200 years ago before we were 50, 60 or 70 were infectious diseases or famine or war.

They weren't metabolic diseases. These metabolic disease are new to us in the last 100 years or so because obesity rate in 1901 was 1%. And most cardiologists had never seen a case, or a heart attack, even in the early 1900s. In the 1930s, the type two obesity rate was 0.3%, a third of a percent population struggled with type 2 diabetes. Drastic, drastically different than now. So we have brought this on ourselves, and that, Well, it should be empowering. It's also sad to see that through, whether it's misinformation, confusion about what is really the right way to go, which choices to make, or just neglect, It sad see someone's health decline that rapidly when it didn't have to.

And it was through their own choices. What do you think is causing these type of metabolic diseases? I think the primary driver is processed food. And if we correlate when we started creating and distributing processed foods at scale in this country, it correlates very well with the rise of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, which starting, I would say, probably right around early 1900s, maybe 1920, we see all of those things starting to

Why Metabolic Disease Is Rising 15:00

increase and then rapidly increase after 1970. when we really started seeing a lot more processed food. Processed food entering our food system. A lot of more seed oil usage in restaurants. After that point, people switching from tallow or butter or coconut oil to canola soy. Cotton seed is the original Crisco. When we started using these processed and manufactured foods and replacing home cooked foods or home-cooked meals from food you would find on a farm, that's when we see this level of disease increase.

You're right about that, man. And you know, the other day I went to the grocery store, and I'm standing at the front. I actually get in a few scratch off lottery tickets, And I look at grocery stores, cashiers are up there up front, I just looked at that grocery story, then I started thinking to myself, Man, everything that's in sight right now is all processed foods. There's really only about 10% of the store that is actual whole foods, And it's scary because today there's a lot more awareness about it.

We live in this world of so much ultra-processed food. I understand that we built cities and a lotta these food deserts, if you will. But what would be your recommendation for people who say eating the whole foods and all of the non-processed foods is difficult? That's a great question. I know there are people trying to solve that. I mean, the whole food, whatever it is, is gonna be better for you than the best looking, best marketed, most healthy labeled processed food. We have indigenous, let's say indigenous tribes or groups, people groups cultures all over the world.

that have lived on. We have historic record lived for centuries or even a thousand or two thousand years more on just a few with very few resources in their area. So like that's they're living primarily maybe on corn and beans and rice, you know. or they're living in an area where they have, maybe it's just, they've some fruit, coconuts and fish, or you have in Papua New Guinea, It's really what they can find, really. Hunt and gather, they have a 90% plant-based food, which I wouldn't say is ideal, but they don't have metabolic disease, heart disease.

Because they're living from the limited amount of foods they they, have around them. They're not eating processed food. And so even if you only have a limited amount of whole food available to you, whatever vegetable, fruit and animal protein you have, even it's just milk and eggs and some odd veggies and and corn, that is far better for you than any processed food. So you may be limited and I'm sad to see that. I mean, it is terrible. We still have food deserts in this country. But if your health is valuable to, then you may have a hard choice to make, but it's still a clear choice.

The processed food is what's driving disease. You have to really work with what you have. And this actually takes me back to my bodybuilding days. I remember, and it wasn't the healthiest thing for me to do it, But I was able to maintain my health and also my physique with eating like a handful of different ingredients, you know, when I did bodybuilding. I remember I just like, chicken, steak, asparagus, broccoli. It was very simple. But, there's a discipline that had to go behind it to be able eat like that, to achieve my certain goals.

You know, what I'm getting with to that is how you said in certain areas, and this is all over the world, there's only certain foods that you would have access to where it's not this ultra processed food, which when it goes into your body, your buddy doesn't even know how to identify this thing. It's trying to figure out how they even break it down with the stomach acids and everything else. And then let alone, how is it going to absorb a lot of these chemicals that are in there? So when you're working with your clients, what's one of the first steps that you take when it comes to their nutrition?

Well, it's like I just mentioned it, move towards whole food, get rid of as many ultra processed foods as possible, limit it to maybe 10% of their diet, instead of it being 60, like the average American. 60% percent of the American diet is ultra-processed food. We could shift that down to closer to 10, we have a few sweet treats here and there, or something that's really special to them, and that there's a little bit of that, that can be managed. And it is sustainable, right? But getting rid of, I think the evidence at this point, at the time, with the way truth has been revealed to me at that point is that seed oils are one of the worst drivers of metabolic disease because of oxidative stress they cause in our mitochondria, which then leads to the metabolic dysfunction you see with insulin resistance and so forth.

And so getting of seed oil, limiting processed grains and sugars to as little as possible and sticking to whole food really is the first step. And I think macro nutrient variations can be played with and adjusted for the person's lifestyle and their needs. But if we can stick to the whole-food, we have made a huge stride in the right direction towards healing that body. If you get out of your body's way, it will heal itself. I agree. Zane, with your clients, are you utilizing any kind of data tools to really understand how their health is performing?

It varies. I mean, I like some sort of sleep wearable like aura or whoop just to get some feedback and see if that is an issue. Yeah. Try to start with foundational things like diet, exercise and sleep, right? And so if sleep's on, look at diet. If diet seems to be a struggle, let's track it. I have had a few clients where a CGM for a time, if they were struggling with, like I know they're on the edge of either,

Nutrition Basics: Whole Foods Over Processed Foods 22:00

when we say pre-diabetic or had some sort of metabolic disease or diabetes, then we can get an eye on how that's fluctuating, where it sits most of the time. Like where that blood sugar tends to lie even when they are fasted. and relaxed, you know, whereas, cause stress can raise your blood pressure or your your sugar. I mean, even driving through traffic or having an argument can race your, because that's stress related, right? But getting some eyes on that for a time just to see how their body's working, but it's primarily, I look at tracking, What they're eating, how they are sleeping, and then from there I look at blood work actually.

So my favorite data is looking at a metabolic panel, hormone panel. Something that a lot of doctors don't add to a medical panel is fasting insulin. the full thyroid, so T3, not just TSH and T4 like many doctors look at, but let's look T 3 or maybe reverse T three in case there, you know, there's some inactive thyroid going on because of dieting, over diet, under eating, or just poor nutrition. But fasting insulin, I think, is a great preventative marker that so many doctors aren't looking at. And many times, my client hasn't heard of it, and their doctor doesn't know how to read it.

So just ask your doctor to add it to the blood work if you need to. But so metabolic panel with the fasting-insulin hormone panel, with thyroid and looking the sex hormone. At this point, after 40, we're looking testosterone and free testosterone. for women, obviously estrogen and progesterone, just to at least get eyes on it, depending on their age. But I think even at 40, getting eyes a baseline to see when things start changing. And I can see a lot from that because If those are off, sometimes they can be in fact impacted by their lifestyle, but their life style changes, even if we make the lifestyle changes and there's something hormonally that's off.

Let's say with, with sex hormones are just declining because of age. Well, they got a hard lot harder time finding results. then if we can optimize those with maybe some sort of hormone replacement or making some adjustments to the way they're eating when it comes to thyroid, and when they make those changes, they gonna have a better response, which is gonna be encouraging to them. I don't do a lot of wearables with my clients, but I like the sleep, I think the blood work is where I get most of my data.

Why do you like to sleep? Well, sleep has a big impact on hormones like insulin and hunger. So if your sleep's off, if someone's only getting four to five hours of sleep a night, that's gonna elevate their insulin levels, elevate your stress hormones. The cortisol, even adrenaline and glucagon would be elevated because they're trying to compensate for the lack of rest, which is actually those stress hormone will elevate to blood sugar. they're gonna trigger the liver to release more glucose into the bloodstream to compensate for energy.

And just because it feels run down, it's like we gotta keep going. Most of those people are also very, especially my clients, tend to be type A, very driven, whether tired or not, they gonna keep doing. So helping them understand how that sleep and how they eat and their stress level is actually impacting their metabolic health. is much easier to do when I have data on it. And so if I could tie together, okay, sleep was bad, your blood sugar was probably higher, and so how did you eat that day? Were you hungrier, were you reaching for the donuts, where the things you don't normally eat seem to be crying out to you because you had elevated insulin and stress levels and your body was trying to calm those things down?

tie habits together with data. And I think that's where people get a little bit of an aha moment when they see how their sleep is actually impacting how they get through their day and many times the choices they make. Yeah, and you know, I'm big into sleep data as well. And one thing that I know is that if I don't have good sleep, the next day I am struggling a little bit. You know like there's a bit of mental fog, clarity is not there, energy levels are a litte bit low. So I agree with you man, sleep is extremely important.

Now Zayn, as a personal trainer, some of the things that you're talking about, Way outside my scope. You know, it's like, I appreciate it, right? Because I feel like these are the things that bring the word personal back into personal training. And it allows you to really understand your clients in a certain way that most personal trainers don't take the initiative to understand their clients at that level. Are you doing things also like body composition analysis on your on clients? Not on a regular basis, no.

If I can get them to go get it, I will, but I mean, without a, obviously I don't have a medical degree, so it's not, like, a facility that I'm working closely with for that kind of data. I encourage them get to it. But generally, if they're losing weight, they can see a difference in their clothing. But long term, I look at the data on their blood work. So is fasting insulin coming down? Thyroid balancing out? Are they feeling better? Or are they seeing results? No, that's probably one area where I could probably create a little bit more, I think maybe incentive to my clients, they can say, okay, now we've got three months, we're gonna change this body fat number, right?

That would be a great add on. But no, there wouldn't have as much access to that where am. Yeah, you're over there in Tennessee. So what you're doing with your clients though, it's different than a lot of other personal trainers. What is the true problem with personal training today versus someone like yourself? Ooh. take a dig at my industry here. Because you know obviously you see the good and the bad and every industry has bad actors, right?

Using Data, Sleep, and Blood Work to Guide Health 28:30

Where they're kind of doing it just for the money. Obviously you're very passionate of really taking care of someone's health and you want to see results and your doing things to be able to actually You know, have the data, the objective data that your clients are actually making progress, you know? But at the same time, we've seen our wellness industry grow tremendously, right? Where you got these big box gyms, they're hiring personal trainers where you go in there, so like, that's gonna be my personal trainer?

Like, hold on one second. Right. Oh yeah, I've see a lot of that too. I don't know exactly what you're talking about. And it's... I think we have the same problem in the personal training that we do in our medical industry and that, we people who operate in silos and they understand their particular niche, but they're not looking at their patient or client in a holistic view. And if their exercise is disconnected from their nutrition, and that's disconnected, from what their blood works telling you, or what they're wearable data like the sleep are telling, you have an incomplete picture and no one is tying it together for the client for, the person who's trying to make a change.

And many times they're not, we shouldn't expect them to know how to do this if their trainer doesn't. It's great if someone can be their own best advocate, and that's what I encourage my clients to do is educate them along the way so that they are their best advocates when they go see their doctor. But someone has to be looking at everything and helping tie all of that together. And that was my frustration with, as a personal trainer, I wasn't getting enough I wasn't getting enough eyes on the other aspects of their lifestyle that was impacting results.

And so it doesn't matter what kind of workout I put them through. If they're leaving and they are throwing donuts down their throat or they aren't get enough sleep and don't realize how all those things come together and their doctor is not paying attention to preventative health like fasting insulin or their hormones. Well, they don't have much of a chance to make progress. And so it was out of my own frustration that I went this direction. Like I wanted to start taking, which was not a lot. I never did this, but I would say I'd love to take everybody's blood sugar as soon as they walk in the door of the gym before their session.

But I said, I'm not, uh, a medical, you know, Uh, not. A nurse. So not uh. Uh. PA I can't do that, But that's what I want it. And that was where my frustration started. It's like, Oh, no, there's a blood. Sugar looks like. Right. Yeah. I mean, there's there are ways to do it now, right? With the continuous glucose monitor. There are there right now. But this is like, you know, 15 years ago. And I was like I. Was just frustrated. Especially knowing what you. Know how the body reacts and stuff to some of these.

That was my learning. that was. My learning curve. Yep. So Zane, obviously, besides you taking care of other people's health, You take care. Of your health very well. What's like your number one biohack? Biohack, so beyond the diet, exercise and sleep. I would say it's, hormone replacement therapy is amazing. So I've been replacing, using testosterone since I was 48 or so. My free tea dropped to about, was down to, I got my blood worked, my free tee was at six, total was, just below 500. And in talking to the, the doctor and knowing enough about how that worked, I realized there's no lifestyle change I can do that's gonna significantly impact this.

If I could make a 10% or 20% change, while that would be a significant change from a lifestyle adjustment, it wouldn't be significant in terms of the number. Maybe my free tea up to from six to seven is not that impactful. And so knowing what I knew about the research on it, the preventative nature of hormone replacement with preventing metabolic disease, we're seeing more and more of that come out now, that was a hard decision for me because I thought I could, it was little bit of ego. It's like I wanted to be able to do these things naturally, you know, with diet, exercise, and sleep.

But I came to the conclusion I couldn't. And so I had to decide, am I gonna be better off adding testosterone to my list? And that has been one of the most impactful things I have ever done as far as beyond my personal habits. You feel good. Feel feel great. The brain fog, the motivation, The creativity. You know, it was like I had the mental energy back. It's like shortly after doing that, after after starting with testosterone, I think within a year I'm going to write a book. I started writing a.

And I was basically getting myself out of a little rut. Got your mojo back, got my mojoback. you know it's not about and I hate I. Hate that it so there's a stigma around it where people think there are some young guys using it. for just putting muscle on, and they don't need it. They have great testosterone, they're using a large amount of it for, like you would a steroid. And that's not the same as hormone replacement. So we're trying to bring it back to a more optimal place. Instead of being normal for your age, be optimal like your were at 25 or 30 in that particular measurement, in testosterone.

So it's about optimizing your health and getting back some of that drive. For me, maybe I added 10 pounds of muscle I didn't have before, but that's not enough of a reason for me to start taking testosterone. The reason that propelled me were the long-term health benefits and then the way I felt and what I was ready to take on in this second half of my life. Because, I mean, when you hit 50, you know, your summers are numbered at that point. And what do you wanna do with it? What do want to do at the time you have left?

I wanted to keep making a difference. Yeah. I didn't want to let off a gas. That's important. And especially, you know, when you said that number 50, And I didn't think about this until, I was actually in my 20s, which they consider your first quarter of your life, right? And my functional medicine mentor, Dr. Robert Willicks, who unfortunately passed away at the age of 80 right before COVID, um, was learning from him since the eight of 19. And, you know, one of the things he brought up to me, he said, Sam, like I'm focused on legacy.

I still do this because I really enjoy it. You know, he brought it up to me says, I'm in the fourth quarter of my life. And then he actually broke it down like he says there's, there is the four quarters right when you take someone who you're expecting to possibly lived until they're 100. You have the first 25 years, you're kind of just like really doing your thing. You're in college, your partying, and you not thinking about anything else but that, maybe chasing after girls or whatever. And then you got your second quarter of your life where it's just you just working, working working and working.

Then you have your third quarter where you ready for retirement. A lot of people, they didn't even prepare for their retirement, so they're just You know, they're trying to like, oh man,

Hormone Replacement Therapy and GLP-1s 36:30

it's like things are creeping up. And then your fourth quarter of your life, you're just like really just trying like enjoy life. You're trynna like leave things in a good place for your family. Some people don't even make it to that last quarter. So like you know. Most people. Yeah, most people, right. I felt your energy when you were like yo, when I hit 50, like your thought process changed for yourself. And this is someone who's into health and wellness, you know? So I want the listeners and viewers to kind of understand this.

This is coming from someone, who is a health of wellness expert who even you are saying, man, I got to do something more, to help more people. Absolutely. I don't think retirement for many of us, and I would say you're this kind person too, retirement doesn't sound appealing. Like you don't maybe wanna stop making impact. The amount that you do or the way that do it may change or adjust, but what are you gonna do? Go hang on the beach, go fish? You'd be bored. in about three or four weeks. You'd be bored out of your mind and you'd just be looking around for something to build.

Or you're gonna be like, hey, let's reorganize the way this works over here. And you know, there's a mindset, I think especially for men, we need to have a purpose. We need to be about something, right? I agree. And when we stop, when it becomes about, you know, oh, is it time to go get more dog food? It may just. Oh, how does the garden look? And and, uh, that's like your days just pass and you don't have a whole lot of purpose. I think that the beginning of the end for a lot. Yeah, I. It's it's you got to continue to keep on learning.

Also, learning never stops 100 percent. Let me ask you, because obviously you said you do the TRT and you're big into peptides as well too. Yeah, love them. What are your thoughts on the GOP-1 drugs? Ooh. Ideally, I think if someone needs them or feels like they need them, or wanna change habits, use it to change habit. I would never want it be someone's only tool or their only crutch. Use it as a way to start changing your eating habits. Your exercise habits change your lifestyle, change the way you look at food because it does impact cravings so well that you can start making changes without having all that food noise and as minimal dose as possible.

I've had clients who you might look at and say, oh, they don't need a GLP one, but they'll microdose it at a very low level and it'll reduce some inflammation, bring down their appetite a little bit. And they can hit a new goal. I realize not everybody's in that optimal health position and that they need a little more. Uh, I think they could be used wisely, like any tool, or they couldn't be abused and overused. And we have so many people now who are already in a position where they feel like they cannot come off of them.

Because as soon as they do, the inflammation comes back. and the bloat comes back and they immediately start gaining weight. And they don't know how to come off. So they're almost like customers for life. Wow. That's not ideal. I don' think that's the best way to use these. They should be used as one part of your strategy to reverse metabolic disease, change your habits, and turn your whole lifestyle around. um again it's like any tool that it can be used for the better or or worse depending on how it is used yeah i agree with you man it should be utilized as a tool not a crutch so that that's for sure because if not it could just cause a heck of a lot more issues than the benefits uh that you receive from it zane um We got a big movement happening right now, Make America Healthy Again, the Baja movement.

What's your opinion and your thoughts on it? I thought it would be another decade before I heard people mention things like seed oils and red dye and whatever your, you know, The food chemicals that we have that are in all the processed food, those have been, Those haven't been mentioned in the public, like on the news, before Congress, in any kind of way other than alternative health influencers until now. And so for the Maha movement to bring all of these real issues and questions to get people thinking about it and discussing it in, the Public Zeitgeist as they call it, it's a public conversation, everything from, Like I said, the mainstream news to Congress, we're talking about health from a lifestyle change perspective or a food choice perspective.

Over 90%, for sure, let's just say 90% be conservative, of the deaths in this country come from lifestyle-related diseases, not infectious disease. And yet all we've really before this ever heard about was how to, from our, let's say the CDC, was to impact infectious disease. Most of the money and the attention was towards infectious diseases, yet that's impacting a single digit percentage of deaths in this country. Mostly it's come from lifestyle disease, and so now we're talking about it, now were thinking about, people are making documentaries about and people debating it.

And debate is good. Debate brings the subject out. And even if people disagree and they're talking about it, I'm not sure which way to turn, but they are trying this and trying that, they've begun their journey like I did. My first step was not a great one, But it led me to the next one. And so if we can keep that conversation rolling and start making some changes like many states have where they're expecting the like Texas to these, they are putting, if they contain some of these if the foods contain, some these ingredients, They have to label it not fit for human consumption because

MAHA, Menu2019s Health, and Final Advice 43:00

and list those ingredients now as dangerous ingredients like seed oils and certain dyes and so forth. I love that, man. You know, there's things out there, like for example, cigarettes, alcohol, that we know it's not good for us. And it is listed on the packaging, right? At least we're being told that it isn't good. So what Texas is doing in creating that awareness, then listen, at that point it up to the person. If you decide to eat it, That's on you. Informed consent. Right. Exactly. And think about what it took to get that labeling.

If you go back a few decades on cigarettes and on alcohol, it wasn't like that before. Remember, we had doctors advertising cigarettes back in the day. We had the Flintstones advertising. Cigarettes back then. So commercials, Flintstone cartoons. Great. It took a lot. To get there to get those on those labelings on things like we take for granted now cigarettes and alcohol, which should be obvious. And so this is the next step. I think this next in turning health around here and because it's just gone too far.

Yeah, I agree, man. Say what's the big thing for you, Man? I know you have like a e-book and stuff that you've put together and I have a free, what's called free 40 plan, free40plan.com. So it's basically just how I approach my clients. It's real small, little, a little PDF that someone could get through. There's just a few pages and it gives them idea from diet, exercise, some recovery and then hormone replacement, and some optimal targets for them. And a, uh, Little bit, A little bit on peptides, but it was mostly kind of the foundations of that, how approach to my client.

just for someone who's curious and something they could take to the doctor, say, hey, can we add these to my blood work? And start thinking about food in a different way, explaining how and why I believe these processed foods are causing disease with a little more education. So it's a nerdy, but not too nerty. Just enough to kind of educate and create curiosity for somebody who is interested. I'm speaking at the Hack Your Health Conference coming up in November. I presented there last year. In addition to my presentation, I am moderating a men's health panel.

And so it's, I just like, let's get the word out talking about for men, for older men for a man over 40, like there's one young guy on the panel who's like in his early forties and the rest of us are like 55 and 60. And men typically, compared to women, tend to neglect certain areas of our health, right? We tend be less, We show less stewardship for our health than women do. Women are used to kind of paying attention to these things. We tend to kick the can down the road a little bit before we get to all, we keep pushing it off.

And so addressing health, men's health at that panel is gonna be very exciting with these guys. Those are all a different, they all have different approaches, but they're all successful in the way they are taking it on. addressing, helping people, not just Ben, continue to charge forward with their health after 40. It's not time to let off the gas. Be smarter, work smarter not harder. And leverage all of that wisdom and experience in the circle of influence you've developed over the last few decades and spend quality time with your family even though you're getting older and pursue those passions because you get into an age where you might have more time and more money and you want to be able to enjoy it.

But the big thing is just let people know that there's hope. There's a way. There is. Yeah. I love that man. And you said it. You said a very powerful in the right way. In people have to really take that step and take control of their health. Zane, if there's one person that's listening to this podcast or watching the podcast and they truly do resonate with today's message, what's the one thing you can leave them with? They're not metabolically destined for metabolic disease. They are not genetically destined, for medical disease, they don't have to have their last 10 or 20 years of their life.

Then it's been the last 20, 10, 20-years of your life managing disease some form of metabolic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart disease that is not your destiny. And that choice is in your hands. And you may be uncertain about how to do it, but the first step, you know, eat food that only eat, food, that existed a hundred years ago or more. If it wasn't around a 100 years. Maybe it needs to be removed from your, from you plate until you get your health turned around. Then you can, figure out some, some choices, But you're not destined for sickness.

I don't care what your parents, what happened to your parent or your grandparents, What you see after your friends. That was impacted by environment, not genetics. Perfect. Love it. Zane, if people want to find you, where do they find? Zane greeks.com is the easiest way to find all my handles. I'm most active on Instagram at zanegricksfitness. But zanegreecks. com has all the handles and has that free 40 plan link as well. Awesome, which will include all those links down below. OK, great. So, brother, it was a pleasure having you on the podcast.

This was great, this is information that people really need. You know, we're going to be able to share this and bring it to the world. And I appreciate you for coming here, Brother. Thank you, Sam. Appreciate it. Guys, as you heard Saint say here, metabolic disease does not need to be your destiny. Take control of your health. Remember your age is just a number. We don't have to age or blame things because we're aging. It's not the excuse of why you feel the way you take control of it. There's ways to do it, download the ebook that he has, learn about it make sure you share this subscribe, like do all that fun stuff and we'll see you for the next one.