Biohacking or BS? Fact vs Fiction in the World of Self-Help with Mads Friis

Mads Friis Transcript

[00:00:00] Zach: What can you do to increase your overall happiness? What biohacks are available to help and which ones are complete bullshit. These are questions that many of us have as we pursue a life of self-improvement. These are questions I have pretty much every day.

[00:00:12] Jeremy: In this episode, we'll explore those questions and why sometimes the simplest answers make the biggest difference. We'll do that with our guests, mass freeze. He's a health and wellbeing coach and the founder of the growth island pod. But first 

[00:00:25] Zach: Hey everyone. Thanks for to the fitness podcasts. Doing whatever it is you're doing right now week, we're going to be talking about self-help wanted to start it off. Jeremy. I remember. going to the bookstore when I was a kid I was all, like nine years old, drawn to the self-help section.

[00:01:10] it 

[00:01:11] an eight foot section in the bookstore. 

[00:01:14] was it. And it was embarrassing to be in front of it. You didn't want to be in front of it. You didn't want anyone to see you in front of It But when I went to Barnes and noble, the other day, self-help section is like 10 miles long it's crowded with people the time.

[00:01:31] So apparently this is kind of a popular thing. 

[00:01:33] Jeremy: It is kind of a popular thing. And I struggle with it sometimes, , like you said, there's 10 miles worth of books. There's so much information. I actually found myself in a situation last week where. Sort of a breaking point for me was I was reading some self-help thing, like something you're supposed to do as a dad to show up well and all this stuff.

[00:01:51] You go one of two ways with these things. It's usually, it's like, oh, that's a great idea. I'm going to add that to my life and I'm going to improve it or, well, shit, there's one more thing. I'm not doing what I suck. What a piece of crap I am. I give up and, and it just sent me into this.

[00:02:06] And it wasn't until like the next day when I sort of remembered this quote from one of my favorite writers, mark Manson, and it's self-help is most useful for people who don't actually need self-help. And his premise , is that for people that are generally okay, that just kind of want to do a little better self-help is great because they're not doing a lot of these things.

[00:02:26] They're not there. They're not needing to meditate. They're not needing to run and journal and all these things, but for hot messes like me, Where I'm desperate to figure out what's so broken in me, what went wrong? What childhood tragedy destroyed me as a human being. , I eat the shit up. And one of the struggles with it is that some of it, nothing we talk about of course, but some of it is bullshit.

[00:02:53] Sometimes it has a placebo effect and it works. And that's great. More power to you. If there's something that works for you, that doesn't mean. Keep doing it. That's awesome. But sometimes there's no science to back up the things that are being sold in the 40,000 books on , the third floor of Barnes and noble,

[00:03:12] Zach: Right. And if you read through those books and unfortunately I've read 

[00:03:18] Jeremy: all of them.

[00:03:19] Zach: not all of them, but like I walked through that aisle and I'm like, read that one or that one or that one right now. Most of them say the same thing. And there's definitely two or three nuggets that I take out of every book but a lot of the stuff, again, bullshit depends on who you are, Something that doesn't work for me may work for you and vice versa. So it's bullshit to me, but it's heaven for you,

[00:03:43] Jeremy: right.

[00:03:44] Zach: But again, bringing it back to. These basic things that we need to do before we start jumping into hyperbaric chambers, we need to take a look at our sleep. We need to take a look at our eating and, I try really hard to manage , my mental and physical health in the same way that I manage my finances compound interest.

[00:04:07] Right. , really seriously, it works like little incremental change. That are adding up. And then 10 years later you look back and you're like, shit. That is a really healthy human being. Now 

[00:04:21] Jeremy: I can give you one small example from my life last night and today, , there was sort of a perfect storm , of miscommunication in my family and ultimately everyone got their feelings hurt in one way or another. And I sat there stewing about how much of a victim I was in the situation and how, , nobody cares about me. , I'm just this sort of invisible ghost in the corner that nobody cares. And then I decided, okay, hold on.

[00:04:47] Is that true? Or is that just the story you're telling yourself right now to start a pity party, , and you're the guest of honor. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I'm getting angry about a story that I'm telling myself that I know is not true. And so I was able to go to my family and explain,, why I was upset, and.

[00:05:09] It was over in a flash , the conflict was resolved. But then I thought about me five, 10 years ago, and how that would have been days of you're wrong, because you always, how come you do this? And it was just this, this sort of proud moment of growth I had where I was just like, because I took my own advice.

[00:05:30] I walked the walk and got curious about what I was angry about. I was able to solve something much quicker and in a much healthier way than I would have. And that's because of scientifically tested methods about how to care for yourself and getting curious and trying to solve those problems in a healthy way, instead of by flinging arrows and, and starting a big fight.

[00:05:54] Zach: Good for you. That's that's fantastic. That's a big win. So if you, if you aren't proud of yourself for that, so Jeremy, what is it that you've been doing helped you to realize that situation? What is it that you did? 

[00:06:11] Jeremy: I would like to say that it's because of the deep meditation that I've been doing the last few days, however, I would be lying because I have not been as good at it this week as I was last week. However, I did a ton of it last week. I meditated pretty much every day, which is a lot for me. 

[00:06:27] And I saw a noticeable difference in my ability to separate from the thoughts and that's why we started this Facebook group, right to hold each other accountable. We have a new Facebook group.

[00:06:37] We'd like to have you join it as well. This month we're really focusing on meditation and trying to offer tips and techniques and strategies to help you incorporate more meditation into your life, because it has been such a valuable tool for.

[00:06:49] Zach, I mentioned I've been doing pretty well. How, how have you been holding up? Cause I know meditation is a, is one of your struggles.

[00:06:54] Zach: I've been doing good, actually, it's been, I think I've gotten at least four days a week, the last two weeks. 

[00:07:00] Jeremy: very nice.

[00:07:01] Zach: Five minutes a clip. that's about all I can handle right now, but again, as with anything in my life, , it's five minutes now in a month, maybe it's six and then two months will be seven.

[00:07:14] And before, you know, I, I will just be like, , a little Buddha I've already got the belly. 

[00:07:20] Jeremy: Uh, like I said, this month, we're focusing on meditation and over the next few months, we will be switching gears and starting new challenges, bringing in all kinds of experts to do exclusive Facebook lives in there on the topics that we're discussing, so please join there, follow us on Facebook, reach out to us, let us know you want to be in the group and we'll look forward to connecting with you there in the Facebook group, but for now, we'd like to introduce our guest this week. His name is Matthew. He is the founder of the growth island podcast. He's a health and wellness coach. And I love this interview because like what we've been talking about.

[00:07:51] He shines a light on some things that he has trouble with in the self-help industry. But really boils it down to, again, the basics, the fundamental things that you should be doing in. To achieve the happiness and wellness goals that you've likely set out for yourself.

[00:08:05] If you're listening to a show like this one,

[00:08:07] Zach: And like many of our interviews, this one started similarly where we asked him what he was doing before he founded the growth Highland podcast. 

[00:08:17] Mads Friis Interview - USB: So since I was a small kid, I was extremely curious. I grew up my parents and nuts by asking too many questions. Like, why is it cow called cow? Why isn't it called horse? What if I call it horse, , to taking electronics apart and I'm trying to put them together.

[00:08:31] So I've always had an extreme drive to learn new things and so many things. , but I started when, uh, when I was like in my teams to be very interested in personal development, , after seeing some people being visibly sad and being curious about, okay, what makes the difference on someone like, yeah, don't be the one to live and someone loving life and they were living better than Kings and Queens.

[00:08:53] We have spaces. We have possibilities normally to travel, like so many things like that made me very curious to be like, what makes a happy.

[00:09:02] So, what does make a happy life now since you brought it up? Uh, I, there's happy people and there's not happy people. Why is that perspective is I think, uh, your perception.

[00:09:13] It's everything. Yeah. So something that helped me a lot was I was lucky to travel and I saw how other people were living. Right. So Tony Robbins has a very simple thing. He says , when you don't match your reality, , USR. Um, so basically like what is your standard for how life should be. our standard for how life should be in our blueprint for how we think life should be is very different than it used to be.

[00:09:35] Right. That's why, despite us living better than Kings and Queens objectively, we're not happy because our blueprint tells us that we should be living a different life. We are seeing people on Instagram that are living in life, but they're not even living the people on Instagram, but that's what they're portraying in Instagram.

[00:09:49] Jeremy: yeah. 

[00:09:50] Mads Friis Interview - USB: So that is a key is really getting your blueprint. Right. And then it's finding the good things that like find meetings.

[00:09:57] Jeremy: Yeah, 

[00:09:57] Mads Friis Interview - USB: if I, before I brought on a tendon that the small one, but I can go into a lot of different tips of like, what can you actually to do to, to ensure that you have a good blueprint?

[00:10:05] Jeremy: We will get there. I wanted to hit on another word that you mentioned, uh, talking about your, in your childhood curiosity. That is a word that the more of these interviews we do more and more people are talking. Curiosity really being a powerful tool in happiness, finding better health, finding resolution to their anxiety and depression.

[00:10:24] Talk about the power of curiosity and how you use it , in your wellness

[00:10:28] Mads Friis Interview - USB: Yeah. , so for me, it's the key that. But there's kind of a lot of stuff out there, but health is extremely complex or at least it's being, it's been made very complex with a lot of contradictory advice. Some person's like, oh, you need to put kale. And then I had an interview the other day and someone was like, kill, kill, kill 

[00:10:49] kill is killing you.

[00:10:50] And it's like, okay, easy, easy. And so that curiosity to figure out okay, , what are the fundamentals? And then what are some of those small treats that makes a difference? Right? So like also using the curiosity to be like, okay, what's the 80 20. So even though I want to learn all the details, , then I need to focus first on the fundamentals, like the 20% that makes 80% of the difference.

[00:11:13] So I think that curiosity is very important to also continue , to try and look solutions, if what you tried, isn't working. , so continue to be curious and be like, okay, , I am not a victim. There is still a way out if I'm on a health journey, but I need to continue to be curious. I need to continue to look for solutions. So you have your own show, the growth island podcast. I'm curious, , what common themes you, hear on that show? Or if there's, , one or two things that, have really stood out to you and, , potentially as curiosity one. It is a, so it's funny, you're asking. I remember I was, I was almost a bit disappointed because I had all of these like big names, smart people, and we're talking about complex stuff.

[00:11:55] And then when I asked him often that didn't have to show, I almost ask all of my guests, what's the 1, 2, 3 advice about how to live a happy, healthy, meaningful life. And no matter how complex is often, like. Keep asking questions, finding answers and be critical. So again, also like health experts being like, Hey, be critical about what I'm saying 

[00:12:16] and where it's coming from.

[00:12:18] And then it's very much like the coach yourself, , don't be too hard on yourself. , and then many people say, get proper sleep. But it's it's strikingly. I was hoping that I could get this really insightful, like big thing, but it comes down to the same fundamentals that so , common sense is not common practice.

[00:12:37] .

[00:12:37] Jeremy: That's something that's been really curious to me and our process and all the interviews that we do. Same thing where we're a lot of the information from some, I mean, people that have just done years of deep research in so many of the answers are so. But it seems like I know I struggle with, and apparently many people in the world struggle with just applying these basic things.

[00:12:57] is there a value in continuing to just, keep sharing that information and keep reminding people get eight hours of sleep, be kind to yourself, be curious about these struggles. Do you think it's 

[00:13:09] to just keep putting that out there? I know for me, , the more reminders I get the better, because there will be things that I will do.

[00:13:16] Fall off the wagon and then I'll hear something or I'll read in a book. Oh yeah. That's, that's something important I should do.

[00:13:22] Mads Friis Interview - USB: I think it's key because we all know that that other person tells you something you heard 10 times before, but then it actually, it makes a change or you weren't ready to hear it at that point, but now you're at a point in your life. Now you're hearing that a virus no. Suddenly understand it and now you're ready to implement it.

[00:13:41] So I think it's super important that we still get the basics out. Like when I do workshops and modic biohacking for big corporates, they really want to hear about the cool check, like hyperbaric oxygen chambers, or like new feedback. And I tried most of them. But the most important things are still the basics where it's kind of boring.

[00:13:57] So I always have to balance my presentations and my talks. 

[00:14:01] I give them a little bit of the salt or like the spices that the more interesting, cool tech, but there's still the main food, right? These are just like the spices that you're putting on top and this, you have to fundamentalist, right.

[00:14:12] It doesn't matter. .

[00:14:13] Yeah. My wife always gives me a hard time because she'll tell me something for years and then I'll listen to a random podcast and hear the same advice and then come home and be like, you'll never believe what I heard. And I've been telling you that for years. , you mentioned earlier 80, 20, , but in doing a little bit of research on you, I saw something else where, .

[00:14:33] You've said that people are looking at fixing the problem 80% of the time and only 20% of the time actually looking for the solution. So I was hoping you could elaborate on that. Talk to us a little bit more about flipping that around. Yeah. So for me, what I meant with that was that I often find when I find resources that they spend 80% of the time explaining that there's a problem and explaining how this problem is so bad and then 20% of the solutions.

[00:15:02] So whether it's climate or. 80% and how bad of this and trend tips in the solutions. So health problems, 80% about how bad has a cultural risk or something else, and then Trinsic solutions. And I really want to flip that around because I think most people that are listening to this kind of stuff have already bought into like, okay, this is a problem I want to do.

[00:15:20] let's instead just like 20%. Okay. There'll be understand the problem, what it is, because it is important to understand the problem. And it's important to understand the balance or like the system that is part of, but then the majority of the time should be on concrete advice instead of just like you listened to a podcast and you're like, oh yeah.

[00:15:38] Okay. You feel even more down because this is a really big problem, right? Like I wanted people to be uplifted and be like, hell yeah, I can take responsibility for my own health or whatever problem I have 

[00:15:49] Jeremy: Yeah. 

[00:15:50] Mads Friis Interview - USB: fuck all of those challenges. I'm going to overcome them. And now I got empowered. I'm going to try these three things out and they might not work.

[00:15:56] Then I'm going to try a new thing, but at least I have something concrete to try. So that's the, thing, that's one of my important things. When I grow about learning new things and spreading.

[00:16:07] Jeremy: I could be way off here. Maybe I'm projecting here, but, , you seem like the kind of guy who has always been driven and. inspired to do more, learn more, be better, do better. I've only been trying to become that guy for the last 10 years or so. And it's very much against who I was for the first three quarters of my life so far. So how do you convince someone like me 10 years ago get on a path to become more like you , , not that we need to be like you or compare ourselves, , but it takes a tremendous amount of work and commitment and effort to take care of yourself just because of the way that life built around us.

[00:16:46] So, , how does someone flip that switch and get off the couch and start doing something more to take care of themselves?

[00:16:53] Mads Friis Interview - USB: We talk so much about what you put into your mouth and what you eat, but we should talk more about what is your feed your mind with? So the first step is really. Your mind with the right stuff. , are you listening to podcasts that are giving an empowering message that are slowly building up that muscle?

[00:17:08]  I used to wake her up and as corny as it's not like, I love motivational quotes. , I get pumped about a thing. Like, yes, I can do it, but I would listen to these really, really cool. American motivational, soundtrack of like how you can grow through stuff and so on. So be feeding my mind with this kind of stuff about like, Hey, going for greatness.

[00:17:30] I always love like these movies with like heroes and like the, the bigger, the challenge, the better. Right. So I think you gotta feed your mind with the fuels. So you might still be sitting in the couch, but then start fueling your mind with more positivity, more empowering messages, 

[00:17:45] then you can. The other part is if people don't want to change, they want change.

[00:17:51] That was one of the things that many coaches also say, , , you can only try and push a person so much and you can provide them with the content, but sometimes people need to go really far down and hit the rock bottom and then they're ready to change. And then it's accepting that you can try and preserve it.

[00:18:05] But if you are open in your list, Some of the amazing content, like this podcast with the two of you where you're talking with people that are giving empowering information, right. Put that on a daily basis. Like Tony Robbins called it the net time. No extra time. So like that time when you are cleaning up or you're moving or you're going to work or something else, make the time to start fueling your mind.

[00:18:29] Jeremy: Yeah, I agree. Listening to this show every day is definitely the first step that anyone should

[00:18:33] Mads Friis Interview - USB: Yes. And then it's just circle of friends, right? That classic annoying. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And that doesn't necessarily have to be people that you hang out with, but it matters a lot, but that's also why you can find inspiration from other people. So if you don't manage to find five healthy people that are pushing you into.

[00:18:52] Then find those other inspirations. So I have written down like some of the important people in my life and some of them I've never met in my life, 

[00:18:58] but those are people that I get inspired by and that I go to for wisdom and yeah. Keeping a healthy mindset. Yeah, I actually just had to answer a question, of,, who inspires you.

[00:19:10] And I couldn't really give one answer because there's so many, but the general idea I gave was anyone who can get me out of my comfort zone and moving in a positive direction. So I would love to hear, like, , I know you said that the people who inspire you, some of them you haven't met., , could you give us some examples of some people who inspire you or drive you to be.

[00:19:33] Sure. So some of the people that are easy to find, , Tony Robbins definitely changed my life. I started reading and stuff when I was 10 years old. , I would credit him together with my parents. That's the main thing of why I'm, it's a positive individual, but probably him the most, to be honest, , because he's the one that made me look at my mindset and the power of words and all of those different things that kind of give a positive output.

[00:19:54] The dilemma, I started reading stuff when I was 16. And you had this book on happiness that gave the simple advice , , about worrying. If you can do something about it, do it. If you can do anything about it, stop worrying because you can't do anything. And it sounds so simple, right? It's must harder and real life.

[00:20:09] I don't know what I learned from Tony Robbins. He had an ex example being like, if you can do something about it, do it or accept that you're not going to do it. And then stop. 

[00:20:17] So either you're do something about it now, mark Hyman, when it comes to health, 

[00:20:22] I think he is super interesting and fascinating.

[00:20:24] There's so much stuff in health and it's hard to figure out what is actually backed in something that makes sense. I think he has a very balanced approach. , so she is a big inspiration for me when it comes to that. And then the people that you don't know, like some of my friends, like I have a friend called Thomas arrests.

[00:20:41] Who's just been through hell. Like most people can complain about being through like heart health services, like his, he was in a wheelchair on and off for 10 years, the amount of pain he's been in. And it was total like not to be able to walk everywhere and make, and he's always positive. He's working on himself and so on.

[00:20:59] He's just a, it's a true inspiration of, uh, of being around a source of wealth and knowledge. When it comes to health, he became a pharmacist, , to learn about him, thought , The pharma industry would be able to , save him from off the challenges. He figured out that that was not the solution.

[00:21:14] And there's a lot of other stuff. He still is a big fan of the stuff you can do with pharma and stem cells and so on. So he can be walking more, , but he's making that mix of both the pharmaceuticals, but also a lot of , the natural stuff and how to take ownership of your health.

[00:21:25] Jeremy: Speaking of solutions and finding them biohacking is something that comes up a lot in this genre. I know that's something you're really into, , biohacking can get really crazy and it can be simple, , get enough sleep and get enough exercise and eat the right foods. Let's talk about it. You mentioned that your talks, you do, you sprinkle in some of the spicy, so talk about some of the spicy, some of the things that really get heads to turn and wow. That's interesting. And then , where is a really good place to start? If you are, , starting out with your biohacking.

[00:21:54] Mads Friis Interview - USB: So, so much really cool technology, eh, is hyperbaric oxygen chambers. So hyperbaric oxygen chambers is all technology. if you were dive on, you came up too fast, you'd go into a chamber. And now we're just starting to figure out how it can do more and more positive things. There was a study in Israel where they took 27 individuals or thirties, 64 years old, and they put them into these chambers, , Over or no, 60 days or 90 days.

[00:22:23] So they got these treatments and they're senescent cells, which is something that's related to. the decreased, but more fascinating is something called tenemos. Tenemos is kind of a sign of aging. And we talk about there being shortened throughout our life. And it's not really possible to extend them.

[00:22:41] You might be able to do something with lifestyle interventions. You can get one to 2%. These individuals got 20% increase in tenemos. 

[00:22:49] So like it's a small study of 27 people, but there's just so much research coming out on that. And I find that extremely encouraging and fascinating.

[00:22:58] That sounds incredible 20% for just going into a hyperbaric chamber. That's incredible. And there was no lifestyle interventions with these individuals. That's what makes it even more incredible. So imagine when we have this technology more available from our people and in the gyms and so on, and then you also do lifestyle interventions that is freaking fantastic that we got some technology out there.

[00:23:18] Jeremy: For sure. let's get a little more simple. W what are some, some easier ways to bio hack your way to better health?

[00:23:24] Mads Friis Interview - USB: Sure. I'll mention one complex as well still, and then are critical as a symbol. And your feedback neurofeedback is where you put electrodes on your head is measuring you a brainwaves, you get audio and visual feedback. And from that, you bring, gets rewarded by seeing the audio coming. If it's giving you the right, like other brainwaves that you want to.

[00:23:46] It is crazy whether that connection to do a senior with a guy that had Shahada, because I was doing a three in education together with him and the changes or where we can, where he had some of the training, how that kind of, a lot of it got away, even though he's been trying a million different things. I think that is going to be one of the things we will also see in the future of how to both get rid of challenges, but also how to optimize our brain.

[00:24:09] Jeremy: I've heard that, that it has tremendous benefits, particularly for battling depression.

[00:24:14] Mads Friis Interview - USB: Yes, depression, ADHD, , PTSD. , , it's really fascinating. Some of the, research that has come out of how it's really effective. There's also a lot of things that I'm worried about when it like, because you go, you can do something to the brain. If you can do something good for the brain, you can also do something bad.

[00:24:30] And most of the individuals that you're talking about is only talking about their good things, right? Like, I'm not sure that I want him to be okay. 

[00:24:37] Jeremy: Right, 

[00:24:37] Mads Friis Interview - USB: like to know, like, who are the top performers in the world that might be a little bit strange. and my brother one, my brain should be trained to watch them then to the mean, 

[00:24:46] or the average.

[00:24:47] So there's a lot of things in it. , Dave Asprey has his 40 years of sin where he tries to get people into these. Uh, I think it's theater stages and different things, but that is something that's going to be in the future. , so I just have one quick question on neurofeedback. Is that something that is making its way into households?

[00:25:06] Is there like a kit that you can buy , or is that something that you need to go work with a professional on? You still need to go work with a professional. You can get muse. Muse is the headband has been very public. I'm not sure where the. They had a new version, but I know that earlier version, I talked to several experts on their feedback and they're basically saying that it was bullshit because it was mostly measuring, brain tensions or like a muscle tensions.

[00:25:31] So the thing about the technology is it's using something called dry senses and dry senses are not as good as picking up the signals in the brain. , but I talked to. The expert on it, who was like, give this five years maximum 10 and the dry sensors are going to be as good or good enough as the wet sensors.

[00:25:50] , and that's going to be the revolution because suddenly you have these devices that are much easier in home training. So muse is probably the best right now in checking, like at the home front, together with a company that came out of. How would I think of MIT? But I would love to talk to one of the founders and really , get asking the critical questions about like, okay, where are you with your newest version?

[00:26:11] Is it honestly mostly muscle tensions that you're measuring? because I want to use it as soon as it's grown enough, but I don't want to be wasting my time and money on something that's still in development phase.

[00:26:21] Jeremy: Yeah, that's something that's super common. I think in this genre too, is that there are so many products that, I mean, just on, on their face, you can tell it's.

[00:26:30] Uh, but, but then there are, there's some that like, wow, that sounds intriguing. Like idea of measuring your own brainwaves in your home by putting on this headband.

[00:26:37] I mean, that sounds crazy. how do you differentiate when you're researching these things? How do you know this is crap and Hey, this is something that I need to spend some time.

[00:26:47] Mads Friis Interview - USB: Yeah, it's extremely difficult. Like I had the muse, , the second version of the muse and I felt like it was doing quite well. So , one of the things is, do they have any research that's been published saying that this. And then actually reading them. So I also read some papers from the muse and where they were testing things.

[00:27:04] I think it was in Boston and so on. And there was it wasn't conclusive. What I was working on. And just quickly on muse, I think, is going to be one of the things that will change the world. I'm just not sure where they are now, but so are there any research backing it? Are there any experts that seems to be explaining to.

[00:27:22] Like why this works? is there any logical conclusion for how the body works, that this should be able to. So I think that's another thing because we know double bind studies are super expensive. It takes time and so on to the studies. So is there like a logical explanation and with many things you don't have a standing ground to suggest that unless you've been trained as someone within the field, 

[00:27:44] so then it's like finding people and see if they explains how it works.

[00:27:48] And does that seems somewhat logical and there you can go wrong as well. 

[00:27:52] Jeremy: So then let's go back to , the simple biohacks we've talked about some of the technology and some of the crazy things that are out there and coming down the road, but what are some things that we can start doing today our health?

[00:28:03] Mads Friis Interview - USB: Yeah. Facing is so damn simple, right? It's cheap. It's free.

[00:28:09] Jeremy: yeah.

[00:28:10] Mads Friis Interview - USB: I laughed after three and this actually saves your time. So there must be one of the biggest biohacks ever 

[00:28:15] you save time and you save money so fast. And basically I do the intimidate fasting. So, uh, I used to be a, it very strict where I had an app and I've always been eating breakfast.

[00:28:26] Yeah. So for me, I felt like I was getting dizzy and it was very weird. So I was like timing of the 16 hours. I was like, but basically you need to just, it takes, take some time to adjust it, but if you give it three weeks, you should be adjusted and then it's not that bad. Now. I no longer time my fasting. I kind of do it with seems natural.

[00:28:43] And for people that don't know what fastening is, if hadn't been, you can do long periods of fasting where you don't need, or you can just do like 16 hours. And it turns out again, most of the adventures with 16 hours. So basically. What people used to skip breakfast is now just really cool called intermittent fasting.

[00:28:58] Jeremy: Right.

[00:28:59] Mads Friis Interview - USB: there's a lot of studies showing that it has amazing longevity effects. So I think that's definitely one of the cheapest and time-saving things that could implement.

[00:29:11] Jeremy: Yeah. And , you mentioned, , mark Hyman earlier. he's a big proponent of fasting and, and I've, I used to do 16 hours every day. And 

[00:29:17] was, I was also finding some challenges, mostly just of keeping it concise. so I've followed sort of what he recommends in his new book about should for 12 hours every day in 16 hours, a couple of times a week, if you can make that work.

[00:29:30] And that, that has been really beneficial for me, I think a lot of times the rules that we set up for ourselves obstacles themselves, like yourself to two standards that are too challenging. I think that they can serve to be good goals, but to not get. In finding the goal and making sure you focus on the journey, getting there.

[00:29:50] Does that make 

[00:29:51] You know what I mean by that?

[00:29:52] Mads Friis Interview - USB: I fully agree. And also with fasting, you don't need to fast every single day. 

[00:29:56] Like, as you're saying fastening a few times a week is super good to 16 hours and sometimes you do longer, fast, and actually it's turning out mal that for women, they publish shouldn't fastest much. Some of them, if they fast, continuously might get home on problems.

[00:30:09] So for them, they should aim for 12 to 14 hours a day and then every third month. But since you take up to a five day fast or the. The fastest something else. And I think when you're sitting in, so spot on that, we need to be careful that we don't become so phonetic. 

[00:30:23] So it's, so it's very much about living a life in balance and in the biohacking space, like honestly, a lot of people have sick mentalities, so people are doing all of these things that are not 80 20.

[00:30:34] They're doing the last 20% with this last supplement lion's mane. I drink lion's mane. So I'm not pointing fingers in that way, but it's like, Like I know that that's not, what's going to make the biggest difference. It's like the icing on the cake is like the spices. So it's about the simpler things and don't, don't hate yourself so much in the head.

[00:30:52] It's okay. If you're sick, your video is sick and nothing is helping the health care system. Then you might have to be a bit phonetic with many things until you health get off to a certain day. Fully respect for that. I've been through that as well, myself. , but the problem is when you have influencers and experts kind of preaching, like everyone was super sick and they have to be super fanatic, but everything where if you actually feeling quite well, your body can take so many different things, but you want to again, focus on the fundamentals and then the mental part is so extremely important for your body.

[00:31:22] So that beating yourself up about not fasting 17. Well, sometimes also just knowing that blue light is bad, might even be worse than the effect itself because you're so worried that you don't have your blue bloggers on or something else. Right. So I think that's, if there's one thing people take away about biohacking from this, I really hope it's like, don't be too hard on yourself.

[00:31:42] And like the psychological stress that you put on yourself can be much worse than the negative effect of what you're doing. So if you eat that chocolate. It's Negroes, which is not in 95 or 85% dark chocolate. Enjoy it and be happy and then leave it at that. Yeah. Had , somebody I respect, I saw them post something about, , if you're being good, 85% of the time you're doing well, , and be okay with that.

[00:32:05] We need to be better to ourselves. Too many people are hitting themselves in the head. Hey, you're human. We're not perfect. I think that's also another thing of like being happy and so on is like accepted. Like, Hey, I'm not perfect. Like if I had negative emotions, I kind of like, I don't try to hide it away.

[00:32:22] Like I don't dwell on it, but then I kind of stumbled like, Hey, this is a signal to me. And it's another proof that I'm human. And then I got to do something else, like focus on something that I can actually do, but allow yourself to be humans and that life can be difficult. That's another reason why people are unhappy.

[00:32:36] I think that everything has to be like on Instagram. It's like, it's how do we get that idea is absolutely crazy.

[00:32:43] Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. This is a lot of great stuff. And for more conversation like this, I imagine people should check out your podcast. Tell us more about that and where we can learn more about the show.

[00:32:53] Mads Friis Interview - USB: Sure. So growth island.com, so like growth and then an island.com. That's where I have to show. Basically I try to find. From different experts on how to be the best version of yourself. So it's like health is athletes, psychology, the mindset, and that's fight to keep it on the solutions and only a little bit on the problems.

[00:33:13] And they can find me as well on Instagram or on LinkedIn. My Instagram is mess in face. I'm sure it might be able to be in the show notes. Perfect. Otherwise, but that's the easiest.

[00:33:25] Jeremy: Yeah. Links and all that will be on the show notes for this episode@thefitness.com mass. Thank you so much for your time. This has been a really fun conversation, and we really appreciate you reaching out to be on the show today.

[00:33:36] Pleasure.

[00:33:38] Jeremy: Our thanks to mass freeze. He's the host of the growth island podcast. You can find links to him, his show and all of his work on the show notes for this episode@thefit.com.

[00:33:47] Zach: And before we go, I just want to remind everyone that we have a Facebook group called the fitness community, it's a place where we're gathering to support each other, each other with our self-care goals this month, we're focusing on meditation and keeping each other accountable for it.

[00:34:02] And every month we're going to have a new topic speakers, exclusive content in there. So. Go out, check out the Facebook group, join us. You can see our witty comments that we leave all over the place in there. We look forward to seeing you there. 

[00:34:16] Jeremy: And with that. Thank you for listening. Thank you for subscribing on whatever podcast player you're using and come back and join us again next Wednesday, where we'll have a brand new episode@thefitness.com. 

[00:34:26] Zach: See everyone,