Fasting Space

My goal here on the
channel here in these sessions here today

specifically want to help you
be walking forward in health, help

you to practice fasting
if that is your calling,

if that's something that you're open to
or learning about or practicing,

help you to lose weight,
help you to optimize your metabolism, and

real happy that we can be here together
and share this space.

I never say that fasting is easy,
but I never say that losing weight

by any path is actually easy,
and we're going to see very deep.

I think reading today session
from the mountain

as you a section, we're
getting to the very peak of the mountain.

Look at my bookmark way at the end.

This is like the hike up
the mountain of pinnacle.

And so I thought it was fitting,
as we're kind of

reaching the peak of the book.

I filmed this footage.

This is Roan Mountain in North Carolina,

where I was hiking last week.

I set up the camera we got.

Beautiful lookout over

the mountains to frame our thinking

about, okay, the mountain is you,
the mountain is me, the mountain is us.

It's anybody on a journey who is trying
to make things better for themselves.

You know, this book isn't a weight
loss book.

It's not a health book.

It's about just accomplishing anything,
basically, and saying many times

the things that are blocking our path
actually internal.

We have to work on them,
do some deep work inside

to move in that direction.

Like I said, never say that
fasting is easy.

I hope it is
I and I hope that it can become that

and the a big thing I want to do.

I want to help people find a flow state.

Have you experienced
flow state in your life where it's like

you kind of you aren't so dialed in
to just watching the clock.

It's like things are just happening
and it just passing through a space.

It's not struggling.

Like, you know,
this can be a creative space.

It can be a working space.

It's like,
oh, we're just getting things done.

Okay,
I want fasting flow state for people.

This is possible.

I know I have gotten into a state
like that.

I got in a state like that
when I'm hiking.

So I was fasting as I hiked up
this mountain,

pretty much every mountain
because I on the trip,

you know, I'm looking for personally,
just in my own self, you know,

transformational state,
get into a powerful mindset.

I want everybody on this channel
listening, develop a powerful,

strong mindset to help you
through your journey, whatever that is.

Whatever you're calling in health

is, we are going to be walking
a really fine line.

Think about like the crest of a mountain,
that peak, you know,

on this Roan mountain.

It's like a series of three peaks.

And this is actually the middle one.

And it's actually another,
another one a little higher.

But I like this view better.

And plus it was foggy
when we were over at the top one.

And then it cleared out.

And so here where I kind of at the middle
one looking out.

So we want a flow state,
but we have to be completely real.

This is the balance is that the struggle
is real, the struggle for health.

And so we're always trying to balance
these two

things, trying to remove barriers,

trying to flow toward our goal
with as little as struggle as possible.

And then recognizing
that struggle is real.

And struggle is something that we all go
through in life and that for whatever

reason, the way this life is,
is this experience

that things of great value, right, immense

value, are usually on the other side
of some amount of difficulty.

And so this is where we draw the line.

So I found personally reading this
passage, I found it to be very difficult.

And just like the whole book. Right.

Because I have said many times
on the channel, right, the

the book is like a mirror.

It is showing us reality at least

as much as we can see of ourselves.

And that can be a very difficult space
to be in.

And so here I spent a lot of time
actually writing the description.

Take a look at
how did I frame it for this video?

Yeah, they bring in this

very profound, very deep question here.

I'll just throw it up.

What and who is worth suffering for?

Oh man.

And I read that and I got to tell you,

I was like, I can't do a
I can't do a show on that.

That is that is tough. You know.

And when I think about it, the reason
I think it's tough for a couple reasons,

you know.

I was like,
I want people to come into my space.

Somebody just joining the stream.

Now, you know, I want to say,
what are you worth suffering for?

What kind of a channel is this?

You know, this is the thoughts
that are running through my head.

And then as I'm reading in, in the book,
I'm like, who wants suffering?

Who wants anything?
Okay, that is difficult.

And so this is a part of a book
or I'm like, man, like,

don't you want to skip over?

Let's skip over this part.

But like look at think of the book.

Think about the experience
of climbing a mountain like I took.

I was like 3 or 4 hours in, you know,
by the time I got this footage

to, like, look out the view, think
how long we been working through the book.

I think we started reading this

in January, and it's like,
now we're getting to this pinnacle place.

And so if we're getting

in the head of the author,
what they're trying to help us do

transform self-sabotage into self-mastery,
isn't it interesting?

We climb up the mountain,
we get to this point, and what do we find?

They ask this question
what and who is worth suffering for?

I got to tell you,
the reflection that I was doing.

I was like, no,
I can't skip over it, right?

This is the peak of the mountain.

This is where we get out
and we're looking over the view.

And how it came to to me. Is that.

This sentence, to me is really getting
at the heart of of what love is.

Do you think that?

What is love?

At least one aspect of it
is this question.

Like, if you love something,
if you deeply care about something,

you are willing to struggle for it.

You are willing to work for it.

And I don't.

So here's the line I don't want
anyone suffering with fasting.

This is the thing
the societal perspective of fasting.

I've said many times
we are in a consumption culture.

It is very, very cynical toward fasting

and it has very,
very many negative thoughts about it.

Don't I know it like,

oh, here are people
who are really unhinged.

They are starving themselves.

You know,

you can just think of the commentary
that people would say,

and this is what I think about
when I see this sentence and I'm bringing

into fasting, I say I want to keep people
very far away from that.

I'm trying to build a nurturing our way
to health

community of people who see that

this practice can be handled

very gently
because it is powerful, it's profound.

It's getting us into a core space
in our body, between our mind,

body and spirit, where we can
just open some space and breathe

a bit
like the wind rushing through the grass

that we can see here and flowing out
over the mountains and into the clouds.

And, you know, a cloud to me

is like most symbolic of fasting.

It's just floating in space.

Okay, so that is the vibe.

How else did I describe it
in the description?

To conquer the mountain,
accomplish our task,

we need two things
I said grace and compassion.

Okay, that's what I put first.

Forgiving ourselves, easing into things.

No mental warfare.

Think of the sessions we've done.

Firing the.

Bossy attitudes of self-defeating thoughts
that just pop in.

Do you experience that?

That just come in?

You're trying to do something
and negative thinking, coming in

or trying to clear all that out, fasting,
the type of thing that can burn that up,

in my view, if we are thoughtful about it.

But then here's the other side of it
grit and resolve.

The willingness to stand firm
when the fire gets hot.

I put on the cover image here.

Burn the old self.

Like if we are trying
to move forward in health

like we're going to see in this passage,
I'm going to get to it, but I'm trying to

set it up in a good context.

Okay.

Very thoughtful.

I want to be very thoughtful.

Okay.

Burn the old self metaphorically mean,
like we're moving on.

We're gonna let go of some stuff.

You know, I've said in the past
a great way to do that with a journal.

If you got something really dark
that's even hard to write about,

get a special journal.

Not of pricey one, maybe write it out
and then just throw it in a fire

and watch it burn.

And then you are like
really clearing that out.

So like that sort of thinking
becoming something new.

Okay.

But here in our metabolic context,

I really love the fire
as a metaphor for fasting

because the metabolism is a fire.

And when we open up
a space, we're literally are burning up

parts of ourselves.

I don't want this here anymore.

This is energy
that my body has had for me.

It's taken me on a journey,
and it's actually the energy

that we can use to power ourselves
on the next leg of our journey.

This is what I was feeling so

profoundly as I was doing this, hiking
and sitting here watching this

hawk flying around the valley like, man,
we are burning up

the energy as we are burning through
negative thoughts.

Here's what they say in this passage.

Are you feeling the line
that I'm laying out

between grace and compassion,
grit and resolve?

Not pretending
anything is easier than it is

finding acceptance for it, so that we can
then start to flow through it.

Like I made a note, I think I was trying
to draw an image, a cycle,

recognizing that things are hard,
accepting it.

It's how we find flow
and actually ease through it.

This is the cycle that we want.

Brianna West says even doing what you love

for a living doesn't
mean every day will be easy.

Everything comes
with its own set of challenges.

Do you believe that?

Have you experienced
that? Isn't that true?

Everything does.

They're really rare
that we find an easy street.

An easy button, right?

So the question is, really,
what are you willing to work for?

What are you willing to be
uncomfortable for?

These are difficult questions, right?
But they are cutting.

Don't they cut to the heart.

When we think about
how we were framing it,

that something that we is worth suffering
for us

is something that we deeply care about,
that we love, in fact.

And isn't that something
it is worth being uncomfortable for?

What does that mean?
This is what I want to get to.

What does that mean in our health space?

In the most gentle and thoughtful way?

It's easier.

These questions, to me, are easier,
at least for me to think about exercise,

because the exercise space is so clear
and full of people who are punishing,

they're trying to punish their way
to health.

And what I like to say exercise,
just like fasting,

should be a joyful expression.

It's harder, at least for me,
because I at least try to be very,

very sensitive in this space

of not suffering our way to health.

Okay, I've when I'm sitting here
on top of this mountain

with this footage,
I'll just tell you in a fasting space.

I've almost never felt better in my life.

This is the honest truth, and I was
so grateful for it as I was reflecting.

You know, in that space, it's like,
I feel so good.

I'm so grateful for it.

I'm personally so grateful for fasting,
and I'm grateful for the opportunity

to have a tiny little platform
just to share my experience about it.

And so this is what I want to be so clear.

It is worth it to me
personally in health to experience a

some amount of discomfort.

Hunger is the barrier to a fasting space.

It's worth it to me to experience
some amount of discomfort,

because I know the value of it,
and I want it for my body

to care about my body,
and I'm willing to do something difficult.

But I don't like being uncomfortable
any more than anyone else.

And if fasting was only ever struggle
in discomfort,

I would personally, you know,
I never would have stuck with it.

You know,
we stick with things that we like

that are enjoyable,
that bring a US energy.

This is what is so encouraging
about a fasting space to me.

So this is the line that we are walking
with these two points.

Here's how they conclude.

In experiencing hardship and challenge,

we begin to realize what really matters
to us.

It sparks a flame that,
when kindled through action

and commitment,
becomes a transformative fire.

How does that sit with you?

Transformative fire.

It's like we hike up a mountain.

We've hiked up a mountain
reading through this book.

Taking many metaphors like,
are we getting to the heart

of the mountain
or the peak of the mountain?

We're looking out over the top. And.

To me, this sits about right

for something difficult
that we would find this

at the end of this book,
a transformative fire.

Something really intense.

To get into a space of really, really deep

and grounded space
to start asking the questions

like, one of the things I was thinking
last night as I was going through this,

like, it's almost like every book
that I read on this topic.

Maybe it's just what I am drawn to.

Goes to the same place.

It has the same message,
basically trying to drill

way down into our being
and ask the deepest questions.

Who am I? That's atomic habits.

So that's where we're getting here.

What do I really want?

Deep questions.

To me,
these are the things that have much more

value than a spreadsheet
full of macros and calories.

Okay, there's a place for that.

But man, a question like this.

Cutting right to the heart.

There's a quote.

I think I shared it
maybe a year ago on the channel.

Jensen Wong, do you remember that one?

And Nvidia CEO fabulously wealthy,
one of the most biggest companies

in the world,
making all the GPUs for the AI

and everything they were asking him.

I was like,
what would you say to a young person?

Who wants to?

I think something like, make it in
your company, make it in the space.

He's like, I don't know
if I have a nice way to say this.

I'm paraphrasing, you know,
something like, but I hope that you

find suffering because suffering

builds character
and strength and resilience.

It's like I look at I listen
to that quote, I was listening to it.

I'm like, oh, this is hard medicine.

You know?

That is tough.

I don't want to see this is the line.

We could probably just sit in this space.

Try to take away every bit of suffering,
try to remove every barrier,

try to make every obstacle you like.

Bring the mountains down.

Make everything straight and flat.

Okay. This is what we want.

We want easy street.

I got to tell you, if there is easy street
on this planet to help people lose

weight and optimize the metabolism, I'd
say I'll tell people to go on it.

But I really resonate with this. Line.

Everything comes
with its own set of challenges.

If we look out across the landscape

of metabolic health and medicine, you know

everything comes
with its own set of challenges.

Ask anybody
who has had a bariatric surgery.

Okay, you say there's
a certain point of view where people would

say, okay, getting a weight loss surgery,
there's easy street.

We're just going to like get the surgery
and then boom, okay.

Until you talk to anybody
who's had it done, I mean, this is a

massive, massive

undertaking to have a surgery.

Okay. That is an ordeal and a half, okay.

It's got its own challenges.

And, you know, as a weight loss
physician running a weight loss clinic,

historically, as I have been a seeker,

a searcher of paths of written thousands
and thousands of prescriptions

for people, for weight
loss medicines, every special injection

and pill that there is,
I've prescribed to people

and watch them and walked on a journey
with people who are doing it.

And, you know, there's billions of dollars
of hype right now about medicines.

And I'm not opposed to medicines.

It's just that this sentence applies.

Everything comes with its own
set of challenges one everybody to take

every pharmaceutical substance
that helps them.

And I'm not giving any medical advice
here.

Read all the disclaimers,
talk with your medical team.

I'm just telling you my human experience
as a weight loss doctor, prescribing

thousands of drugs and managing
all the side effects and experiences.

I was uninspired by it, didn't I just.

I gave it everything I had,
I will tell you.

And I couldn't do it anymore.

To be perfectly honest.

I just couldn't really do it.

But I'm not here

sugarcoating anything and saying it's
because this applies to fasting.

This applies to exercise.

This applies to every type of diet
that you could ever do, right?

This just applies to reality.

Everything comes
with its own set of challenges.

And so the question is really
what is your calling?

What is resonating?

What are you willing to work for and see?

Because take any any special medicine
that helps

you say in some fashion with appetite,
you still have to walk the path.

If it's a crutch, if an aid and it works
and there's no side effects.

Beautiful. Listen.

Something that is supporting a GOP one,
okay?

GOP one is a natural peptide
hormone in the body.

We can optimize GLP one naturally.

Also, in every good thing,
every natural thing supports it.

Eating the healthiest food
is supportive of this natural process.

Moving the body in healthy ways like
taking a hike like this, is supportive.

Supporting the microbiome,

fasting as part of that, giving space
so that the body can reset.

We did some sessions here recently.

Exercise induced appetite suppression.

Okay, I seriously experienced that
on this week of hiking.

That is real.

And it doesn't have to be high
intensity intervals.

It can be a casual stroll.

And walk through the process.

So to me.

Sit here and look out over the mountain.

We'll get our words out of the way a bit.

Embrace the open space.

I really like this idea of the cycle.

I think the cycle to really work hard
is often the barrier to entry to a space.

By accepting hard.

The reality is,
I think in my experience at least,

the potential of how we actually start
to find ease with things.

I think so many times
we run away from things.

We fear things.

Taking a deep breath, reality based,

looking honestly at things,

choosing our heart

and then approaching it
so gently, like a cloud.

Like the breeze over the mountain
floating toward it.

To me, this is the path
to accomplishing something difficult.

We say we look at society.

We say, okay,

it's very hard for people to attain
good metabolic health in the society hard.

We have to see that.

That's a baseline.
Everybody agrees with that.

People say in our society, consumption
culture is very opposed to fasting.

Say this is not the type of thing
that we do.

We need to be eating many meals.

We need constant consumption.

But little bits say
this can be very difficult

to do in practice
because eating all the time,

it's a great way
to keep energy flowing in the body.

if we're sitting in a space,
they choose your heart.

I want to really lay out for you
a choice, people.

Or I should say society looks at fasting,
say, oh, that's a deprivation.

That's hard. We don't want to do that.

Why would you do it?

People say fasting only works.

This is a classic criticism that fasting
receives that people share with me.

It's like fasting only works
because it helps you get less calories.

So why don't you just eat less calories
and then you don't have to

practice fasting?
Many people feel that way.

I say, well, just see what your personal
experience is, because when we strip out

all of the negative connotations
and we we are very thoughtful.

Look, every video
I put here contraindications to fasting.

I've got thoughtful articles on simple
fasting com about eating disorders

and anybody who has suffered
in a terrible space like that.

Okay, fasting is not for anybody
who doesn't want to do it right.

You got to feel called to it.

If you are not feeling called to it,
it's like then you're not even fasting.

In my view, the actual experience, though,
it's not actually easy to eat less.

Has that been your experience like this
been my experience.

It's not easy to eat less, you say,
I want to burn off some body fat.

I want to kind of diet.

You know, I'm going to say restricting,
okay?

People say, oh, fasting
so intense is such a restriction.

You're restricting yourself.

Okay. What is a diet?

Okay.

A diet you end up restricting yourself
all the time,

never eating as much as you want.

Very difficult mindset to sit in.

Okay, that is difficult.

And you say, oh, if that can work for you
if someone doesn't experience it

that way, bless you. Carry on.
That's fine.

Like we're just trying to find things
that work, right?

We're just trying to find spaces
that are helpful

and help us move in a positive direction.

Many people experience that.

It's when you start eating
is actually when the hunger ramps up.

It's like the classic Pringles commercial,
but you can't eat just one.

You eat one chip,
you're going to eat the tube, basically.

That's my experience.

Get some salt in there and all. It
fires up.

It's sending all these hormonal signals
to the body.

Hey, we are eating now. Better
fire up the stomach.

Better get things going.

But if you didn't have that one chip,
how much easier would it be

to flow through the space
without eating a whole thing of chips?

Say, it'd be much easier now.

Fasting space.

See what's actually easier?

Way to eat less eating nothing or
eating a tiny bit, and so on to open up.

If you're new to fasting,
I just want you to see, like

take a look at the space and realize, oh,

it's actually like standard diet
and can also be restrictive.

And isn't fasting just openness?

And then is it actually easier?

Is it easier?

This is where we can actually come
when we embrace the reality

that there is difficulty.

But then as we flow through it
and we see, oh, we find ease

as much as we can
in the midst of difficulty.

Cycle and we flow through it.

Is that what it's like to sit in a space
like a transformative fire,

to give the space to the metabolism,
stop the flow of energy in?

It's like, have you built a fire?

But you stacked the logs too
close and everything's choked out,

but then you just bring
a little bit of space

and then the air can flow in and
the oxygen is there, and then it can burn.

Okay.

That's what we're trying to do in the body
with a metabolism transformative fire

help to release and use the energy

that is within us to power
our body and life.

It's like fasting is giving space, for
it doesn't have to be for everybody.

But can it be for one person?

Right?

Do you see and resonate like.

Oh, I can see that.

Yeah.

Open space easier ultimately.

Like if we're going to climb the mountain,
we're going to get to the point,

we're going to stay there
and kind of stay in a good place.

We've got to like it.

It's got to be relatively easy. Right.

And so this is my hope for you.

This is why fasting is a practice.

Anything that is difficult,
we can practice, we can gain

skill with it.

We gain experience with it.

We work on it.

Finding a flow state with it.

That's what we want.

Happy to hear thoughts and reflections
on these thoughts today.

I hope you like the mountain view.

Nice to spend some time here with you.

I can keep the session going.

Otherwise wrap it up.

I'm going to be making a few shorts.

I take some short clips.

I've had a little fun with that.

You can check out the shorts section
on the channel, the tab,

and then you can see a little mini
highlights that I'm editing up.

Sometimes I've referred to
as fasting nuggets, which to me is funny.

Think of like chicken nuggets
or something.

Little bites, a little bite of fasting.

To me that is funny.

You know, I'm an internist. Okay.

Internal medicine as maybe as funny as
we can get, I don't know, fasting nugget.

I like that session.

Make fasting a part of you.

That's
kind of the idea of, like, eating nothing.

That's what I put. We eat nothing.

We're going to make it a part of us
that's like.

It's like anti-matter.

It's like, you know, it's like matter.

And then there's antimatter,
and then they come together

and then there's nothing
like we want some body fat anti-matter.

We eat it, and then it's just gone.

That would be the the magic pill.

Some very advanced physics
now anti-matter weight loss.

This is like probably 30, 26.

That's what I'm thinking.

But I'm going to make a couple more today.

My goal get a couple out I don't know.

We'll see how it is.

You know, on the one hand,
this is why I sit here in this space.

Fasting is about spending time.

It's about passing time
in a thoughtful, positive, gentle fashion.

And so the live sessions, to me,
this is like embodying what fasting is.

It's not rushing through anything.

We give space.

We take a breath.

Breath.

The most fundamental, important,
maybe health practice that there is.

You two shorts,
pretty much the exact opposite, right.

It's like,
you know, this is what I don't know.

I go back and forth.

This is what I'm not.

I'm not quitting alive
and becoming a shorts person.

I'm just taking clips
that I like out of these sessions

and chopping them up into little
fasting nuggets and putting them there,

because YouTube right now is just pushing
shorts, I guess it seems to be.

I take I've done a little test,
I take a clip

and put it on
like a regular horizontal video,

and I put basically
the same clip on a short and like it

like you can look at some of the metrics,
like regular video, might get 12

views on my mini little channel here,
and then the short might get a thousand.

And it's like, is it meaningful?

I don't know, is that benefiting someone?

I don't know if you watch the shorts,
do you like it?

Is it worth the time?

You know, not a lot of comments.

What I really like, I like comments,
I like chatting with people,

I like hearing from people
is why I love the live

and the opportunity to hear from people.

Shorts I don't know, it's
you say, oh, it's giving reach.

So far.

I don't know if I'm having a lot
of meaningful connection from it.

Is anybody here that came here
through the shorts?

Is anybody finding their way into this
from the shorts?

Let me know if you're on the replay.

Did you find the channel from shorts?

I would love to know.

On the other side of it,
I kind of do like it because

like on on the other side of it, you say,
oh, I'm cutting out all the breaths.

It's like rapid fire.

We're just like really hitting
these really edited sort of ideas.

But on the other side, like,
it does take really key ideas

and package them
into like a really tight little container.

And I think that's good.

And say, does that respect people's time?

And like if someone wants to hit
a lot of information and it can

have things chopped up
in a really concise fashion,

like maybe there really is value in that
and maybe that's why it's so popular.

It's like, let me know what you think.

I see people coming in.

I can see when people coming
in, I say a big

hi and a big
welcome to everybody who is coming in.

We spent,

I don't know, a good half an hour
flowing through a really, I think, deep.

Session on the mountain as you

and encourage
say I'm, I'm not rushing off anywhere.

I'd love to have a conversation.

Anybody any questions people have,
ask me anything.

That's what I say. And.
I have a propensity.

I'll start the whole talk over
for everybody's here.

But I say go back
and watch it on the replay.

It's there.

It was intense, I say, but good, I hope,
I hope people think it is.

Hello. So good to have you here.

Good morning.

Fell off fasting
pretty bad with the sweets.

I really got a problem.

And fasting is the answer.

Hey, I just love that you're here and
I love that you are working through it.

Right?

This is the process
that we are all undergoing.

And you know, I'm
not going to sit here and claim to be any,

you know, Grand master at it.

I've been through many cycles of things
like that,

including even fairly recently.

Man, I just, you know,
we are all in a struggle.

We are all in a space.

We're all walking on a path.

And, you know, one of the great benefits
just personally for me of doing

this is it
is helping me to dial in on thinking

that is helpful for me
to get through this space.

And, you know, I was like realizing I'm
doing some of these readings.

I was like, man, I am like personally,
like going sideways here.

I was like.

Just last month, like I really realized,

you know, it
provided a lot of context for me, though.

Like, I had stacked like I feel like
a really good series of time together.

For a while,
I was really flowing in a direction,

and then I was like, out of it
for a while, but it just

it provided such a stark contrast
for me to really see it.

I was like,
oh, like, look at this way of being.

I say this a lot on the channel.

We want a way of being.

I was like, oh, here is a way of being.

I had where I was like really dialed in.

I was eating the healthiest foods.

I was moving my body every day.

Basically, I'm just like,
it's in a groove.

I'm taking time, I guess, like, you know,
you can start working for yourself.

Like you can just be working all the time.

I was like.
I was like, oh, I can really see.

I can physically see the the benefits.

And I was like,
I have got to get back on track.

But then here I got fasting space for me.

I was like,
let's dial in on some deep thinking.

You know, I, you know,

full disclosure is like a summer weight
loss challenge, right?

This is just a personal challenge
for myself that I'm sharing with people.

I was like, man, I'm taking 30 days.

I am knocking this out.

I am getting back on track.

That's how it's been for me.

And boy, have I done it.

Oh man, I gotta tell you, it's
been something a century, right?

And a week of hiking and like,
really leaning into some fasting space.

And now, like,
you talk to me personally two months ago

and I was, you know,
I was like, oh, I don't know.

I was kind of realizing, man, I've got a

I'm not quite as dialed in as I want,
but like now I am like,

I am feeling good now, dialed in.

And this is what we want for this season.

We are sitting here in summer
and this is the time,

I think, building mental capital
remember back in the fall we did.

Thinking fast and slow.

Loved the book
and building mental capital.

I think is so important. We have limited.

Cognitive bank account
that we can spend in any day,

and atomic habits
does the same thing like willpower fails.

If we are trying to willpower our way
through 20 difficult situations

every day, you know is going to be very,
very unlikely that we make it.

And so a lot of atomic habits,
if we were to try to rename that book

into something really dry and analytical,

it'd be like an environmental design

for wellness and life changing, you know,
because that's really what it is.

Atomic habits is really like creating
the ideal space and environment

so that we don't have to make
so many of these decisions every day.

And I really think that is true.

This is a big part
of how we do what we said in this session.

How do we take something
that is really hard and difficult

and find a way of being
where we are flowing through something?

Okay,
we have to make it as easy as possible.

We see the reality as what lets us

see the barrier, but
then when we are really clear about it.

We're not running away from it,
then we can actually start

to see the very details of it.

We can find the weaknesses of it,

we can find the opportunities of it
so that we can start to work with it.

Like you look at a mountain,
you say, I could never climb it,

but then you come up closer, you're like,
oh, look, there's a little trail.

And then I was like,
we can step on this rock.

And then the next one.

And something
that seems incredibly foreboding.

You give it some time, you give it
some space and one step at a time

and you start.

You don't rush it, and you're
trying to climb Roan

Mountain here, you know,
you getting up to some beautiful peak.

If you're just going to sprint it,
you'll never make it right.

Is the fittest person in the world.

I don't think I can sprint
straight up a mountain, you know.

I don't know some elite Navy Seal

type operator maybe can do it,
I don't know, or some ultramarathon.

Or even the sprinting.

No, but listen, for us mortal people,
we want to take it a step at a time

and slow down and bring it into a space
that is sustainable and maintainable.

This is the thing that matters many times.

Here is a cycle.

Let's see if I can keep it all in my mind.

This book got into it to

people tend not to change until they hit
rock bottom right.

Like we tend to hit a point
where it's like we can't stand it anymore,

and then we bounce, and then we can see
that that can actually be very positive.

But the thing that can come out of
that is like, okay, we hit a point.

Maybe we're acting out of anger
or frustration

where we hit things very hard.

And then it can fizzle, right?

Have you experienced this in a health
path?

You hit something very hard,
maybe out of an intense place

of anger or frustration,
and then it fizzles.

What I want for us here,
what I want personally,

it's like a path that you can maintain
that feels good.

That's the steady pace.

You know, the big hike
we did, Winter Star Mountain.

We're hiking.

For how long?

Ten hours or so.

Slow, steady pace all day.

Making it.

I was just describing,
oh, I had this period okay,

you know, over two months ago
and then dialing back in okay.

That's like zooming in,
but then in a big trajectory,

just personally my life
fasting been like an anchor.

I've been working on this process
well over a decade now,

and this is what has created
a baseline for me

where it's like,
okay, I've got a baseline that I know

and I trust, and it feels good,
and it has helped me so much.

And so I deviate from
that for a bit is like, oh,

and then it is like centering
and it can bring it back in.

And so this,
this is my hope for you, for us

that we find that centering practice,
that baseline, whether that's fasting

or it's some specific dietary practice
that resonates with you,

cutting out processed food,
maybe the very most important thing

and finding a mental health practice,
a meditation, a journaling,

a breathing practice,
something very grounding

space for the mind as well as the body

so that we can bring the stress level
down, bringing stress down.

Even if we can't change
what's happening externally,

we can change our experience of it,
our reaction to it.

A part of that reaction to

it is the hormones in the body,
the cortisol, the insulin, the adrenaline.

So many of these things
that are amping this up.

Another great way to find a flow state
and a space of peace and contentment.

So nice to share this space
with you today.

Thank you for being with me here.

Wish you the very best in this day
and we'll talk to you again soon.