Lifestyle Shifts That Work (and Why Most Fail)

What We Discuss:

00:00 Intro: Ginger afros, redhead festivals & the illusion of chaos
01:58 Creating lifestyle change: why small shifts matter
03:50 Bifurcation moments: the butterfly effect in health journeys
05:42 The underestimated impact of water — and how to front-load hydration
08:00 Real client stories: hydration hacks that changed everything
10:12 Overhydration, minerals, and climate-specific hydration advice
12:30 When more exercise makes things worse — especially for women
15:20 Chronotypes, organ clocks, and the ideal time to train
17:55 Parasympathetic breaks: micro-pauses to reset your nervous system
20:14 The grayscale phone trick to reclaim sleep and dopamine
22:50 Why a "sleep divorce" might be the best relationship hack
25:10 Addicted to feeling well: the unexpected feedback loop
27:45 Time-restricted eating: small changes with mitochondrial payoff
30:20 Anchoring sleep and meals for travel & circadian balance
32:05 The detox wine story: four inches lost with one change
34:10 Data-driven health: tracking markers for real transformation
35:40 Final reflections
Full Transcript:

[00:00:00] Dr. Scott Sherr: As a segue for this particular podcast, creating and maintaining and optimizing health are not easy. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Smarter Not Harder podcast. You're home for 1 cent solutions to $64,000 questions. We're your host again, for the podcast, we have Dr. Ted, Jody, Alan. We're all here to talk about a topic that I think is very interesting and very important is that we always want our patients to make lifestyle changes.

[00:00:37] Sometimes those lifestyle changes are easy. Sometimes they are difficult. Sometimes they make incremental changes in how they are doing overall, and sometimes they create what Dr. Ted likes to describe as bifurcation points, significant shifts in their life. It's like they crossed the road and their life has suddenly changed.

[00:00:58] And if they had crossed the other way, [00:01:00] that everything would've been different. Um. They have all these movies about these things, right? You meet your soulmate because you went across this way and not the other. 

[00:01:07] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Yes. Sliding doors, remember? Yes. Yes. And then the butterfly effect. 

[00:01:12] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yes. And everywhere, all at once, right?

[00:01:14] These ideas that all these dimensional bifurcations, every time you make a decision. So some of them are more significant than others in that movie, especially if you're looking for something to sit on. 

[00:01:24] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Well, but the many world theory of physics says that, you know, all of those trajectories actually continue.

[00:01:30] You're just aware of one of them. We never know. Indeed. So 

[00:01:35] Dr. Scott Sherr: today's topic then is to talk about in either our own life potentially or in the client's that we work with, what were some of those? Major bifurcation points or MA major changes that patients or our clients were able to make to see significant improvements in their trajectory and.

[00:01:54] Without further ado, I'm gonna leave it up to our amazing clinicians here. So who would [00:02:00] like to go first? Jody, do you have some ideas? 

[00:02:03] Jodi Duval: I do. Well, I have a, I have a, I have a couple I can mention, um, because sometimes we think they have to be these major huge shifts, but they don't have to be. Um, and so they can be very, very simple recommendations.

[00:02:17] Clients have embodied it, and I think that's the key. It's like, well, mm-hmm. Most of the time they know that they should be doing these things or they should be more aware of it, um, in some form of another. So one very simple thing that I find that when clients can actually understand it is drinking water.

[00:02:37] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yes. When I was just writing down for me to talk about It's a big one. 

[00:02:41] Jodi Duval: Yeah. But I think the, the key thing here is also front loading the day with water. Um, because a lot of clients will back load accidentally because they've forgotten all day and then be up all night and then, then not be sleeping well.

[00:02:56] And obviously that has knock on effects for the day after. But, and [00:03:00] for, for, for ongoing. The Correct. You know what, 

[00:03:03] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Jody, I had a, yeah, I had a patient, uh, you know, who, you know, had a partner who actually set the alarms for her in mm-hmm. Uh, her, her, um, uh, in her phone so that she would actually drink water at preset times.

[00:03:23] Otherwise she will forget to drink water and it actually is a chime for water because otherwise she would drink. Coke, right? So it's like, no, it's a water signal, right? 

[00:03:38] Jodi Duval: Yeah, and it could be in different ways of getting that water in as well. You know, like you say, some people will be like, oh, does my coffee count?

[00:03:45] Well, no, it doesn't. Does my, does my coke count? No. Well it doesn't. And you have to have good quality water as well. So if you're drinking a lot of unfiltered water, then that's not ideal either. Um, and having the correct mineral content, you know, all [00:04:00] these things really count with water, but it's actually, you know, just you need to be drinking.

[00:04:04] Water. And so a lot of clients, I, I had one family member who would only drink a pint of water per week. And that was because he went to the pub and he had a pint of beer and it followed with a pint of water with his fish and chips. And the rest of the time it was coke. And he was asking me why he was cramping in the calves and every night he couldn't move his legs 'cause it was so tight.

[00:04:28] Got him drinking water and life changing, never cramped again. So. These little things can, can make huge differences. Um, the other, yeah, remember it's 

[00:04:37] Dr. Ted Achacoso: 2.7 liters of water for women, 2.9 for men a day. And that actually, many people find that too much. Uh, but that actually is enough, uh, uh, to. To get you to an average level and includes the water from your soups, right?

[00:04:57] Uh, from, from food. So, [00:05:00] um, you know, it's, it's not really a lot. But, uh, remember guys, there's also such a thing as, you know, over hydration, right? You can, you can die of too much of taking too much water, right? Of course. And, you know, Jody, I stole your. Thunder here. 

[00:05:14] Jodi Duval: No, no, no. It's a good point because I think the amounts do count and sometimes people think more is more, is more, more is better.

[00:05:20] But no, um, also depends on the climate because I do have a lot of clients who work in the mine accessible in very, very hot places, and they do need to drink five liters of water a day because they're trying to keep up with the sweat. But you then need to massively add minerals back in. But otherwise you, you are not gonna have enough.

[00:05:38] So you flush them out. Yeah. Yeah. You flush 'em out. And the herbal teas. Um, will are an easy way to get in winter because winter is a harder place to drink a lot of water because the, the cues are not there, um, as strong. So I find that herbal teas, if non-caffeinated are really, really good. Um, the other one, um, I, I guess a little bit, it's of a different way.

[00:05:59] We're always trying to get [00:06:00] clients to exercise more. Um, but what I've found in a few of my female clients, most. Specifically is actually reducing down the amount of exercise they do to every sort of second day. They walk in, they're doing other things, but it's actually reduction of exercise, improved their sleep, improved their um, energy.

[00:06:23] Dr. Scott Sherr: My took one of mine again. That was one of mind. 

[00:06:26] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Keep going. They're not resting right on the same page. They're, they're not resting. 

[00:06:31] Jodi Duval: Yeah. Because of the cortisol. Yeah. And I think for women more particularly, um, changing the time of exercise in their day as well works a lot for me, um, when I'm recommending these.

[00:06:41] And it, it can be a difference of like weight loss of, of five kilos within a month because their body is finally resting and feeling 

[00:06:50] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Yeah. In, in our, um, uh, in our, uh, uh, circadian, um, uh. Module, right? Oh, [00:07:00] is, uh, we, we actually have, uh, the best times, you know, recommendations for the best times to work out, et cetera, depending on your, uh, chronotype, right?

[00:07:09] So, um, you know, it's, it's, it's all there. It's discussed. Uh, you know, when is probably the best time for you to exercise, so you know, you can go check up. Corbi module. Yep. Yeah. Corbi module. Yeah. 

[00:07:23] Jodi Duval: Yeah. Good linking. 'cause it's really important. All these things have set timings and obviously for times of life as well, lifespan because it will change, um, you know, to, depending on the age and the hormones and all of these factors.

[00:07:36] But, um, yeah, very important to know what works for you at the time and to sort of link in with that. And always go with what you've been doing consistently, like, change as you need and, um, adapt as you need. 

[00:07:48] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Yeah. Yeah. The body's a dynamic system. You know, acupuncturists beat us to the punch. They know that organs have a peak, uh, times of function.

[00:07:56] They know that, you know, they know how to, how to, um, [00:08:00] to respect, you know, the different, uh, times when these, uh, organs are functioning, you know? You know, the, the, uh, chronobiology is, uh, you know, uh, relatively new, right? Uh, uh, because of the scientific investigation. But, you know, older, uh, methods of, uh, of, uh, healing, uh, actually already recognize this, uh, right, your water, uh, you know, uh, the timing of exercise and the intensity of the exercise, you know, um, you know, and, and remember.

[00:08:30] Guys that exercise is a new thing. You know, people never exercised before. They, they basically hunted for their, for their meals or they gathered for their meals. And I have this joke, uh, actually that women were the ones who invented weightlifting because they had to carry their child and at the same time, have a basket, get all the fruits, right?

[00:08:50] Put it in their head. They were around the camp and they were carrying these heavy loads, whereas the men were the ones actually out there. Know, hunting with a spear sat and they're running and they were doing [00:09:00] aerobics, so they invented the aerobics. So it's actually the women who actually invented weightlifting.

[00:09:04] But anyway, I, yeah, 

[00:09:06] Jodi Duval: yeah. I digress. I totally agree. An interesting point there is what I've noticed is, um, early years of women, their, their, their strength increases as babies gets bigger or babies get bigger. So the, their strength improves and then. Babies are now, you know, um, toddlers or more, and they're not having to lift them as much, and strength actually starts to decline.

[00:09:25] So at that point, I always interesting, recommend my clients to start to have a little bit more weight lifting, you know, heavy shopping, more bigger shopping, or more babies. You can do that. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:09:36] Dr. Ted Achacoso: No. Or just get a really big dog that's hard for you to control. Right. 

[00:09:41] Jodi Duval: Just carry Wally around everywhere.

[00:09:43] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Like twice your body weight. 

[00:09:45] Jodi Duval: Yeah. Yeah. But, um, yeah. I'll stop there before I take another one of Scott's. No, that's, 

[00:09:52] Dr. Scott Sherr: it's good. I, I have a lot, I have a lot of these too, but those are good ones. Those are great. Jody, uh, Dr. Allen book, do you have any to [00:10:00] share? Any thoughts here? 

[00:10:01] Dr. Allen Bookatz: Yeah, um, I'd say. The first one that that comes out is, or comes to mind is, is like the management around phones.

[00:10:13] So, you know, we can tell people all day long, Hey, put your phone down, put it away before you go to sleep. Um, and I find that that is just. Just unacceptable for most people, right? Like they are so yoked to, we are so yoked to our phones. Right. And speak for yourself. And I, I think there's some stats where people like check their phone every Yeah.

[00:10:35] Like every 30, 40 seconds or something. Right? And it's just ridiculous. So I've, um, so in trying to, in trying to look at the mechanism that. Is it play right? It's, you know, bright colors being stimulating the content and um, you know, reinforces this frequent rechecking. What if you make it just less appealing?

[00:10:57] So putting the phone on gray scale. And [00:11:00] so they have now a way for us to be able to, um, to actually like rapidly toggle going from color to gray scale. Yeah. And so, you know, at certain times of day when it's important that you start to rev down the phone use, uh, in the screen time. That the gray comes on.

[00:11:17] And in my personal life I've noticed that it's significantly taken down. Just the interest in looking things, you know, um, you know. If we go back to evolutionary biology, right, during the daytime when we have lots of blue light, uh, there's vibrancy of colors and imagery, right? We're supposed to be awake and alert.

[00:11:36] Dopamine gets released and we're supposed to be active. And so we're giving ourselves these subconscious cues to be active at a time that we're actually supposed to be less active and, and having ramped down. So if we just, uh, sort of. Tap into that ancestral, um, that sort of ancestral pathway. So we have less, it, it's just there's less visual stimuli, so the phone's just less interesting.

[00:11:59] We're gonna put [00:12:00] it down and have less of those cues. And then you're not telling people, Hey, like, don't use your phone. Right. It'll, it'll naturally be a consequence of that. So. And I, I found that if anyone wants to just try that even for a day, you'll, you'll go on your social media, you'll go on your email and just, everything just seems so much less interesting when it's in gray scale.

[00:12:18] So, and then you plop it back and you see just everything's fast and, you know, fast and beautiful and vibrant and moving. And so that's, uh, that was just something really, uh, just like your hair. It's been 

[00:12:29] Dr. Ted Achacoso: just like my hair. Exactly. 

[00:12:31] Dr. Allen Bookatz: Yeah. 

[00:12:31] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Well, you, you can just, for now, you can just get a dopamine hit by. Sh nicotine, you know?

[00:12:37] True, true. That's a, an alternative. The, the other, yeah. I, I, I have other molecules that can do that, you know? 

[00:12:49] Dr. Allen Bookatz: Yes, you do. The, the other one just around, 'cause we're talking about light and circ, you know, we're talking about circadian biology is, uh, is set a, uh, [00:13:00] set a routine around at least one time of day where the sun is crossing the horizon.

[00:13:05] So for those of us that are willing to wake up early and see the sun rise. Make that part of your routine and part of your day. And so if you have a, you know, a loved one that you, uh, are looking for a healthy, you know, a healthy new habit to start together and going on that early sunrise walk and seeing, you know, seeing the sunrise, or probably for most of us realistically, it's gonna be the sunset, right?

[00:13:26] And so it's a great way you're gonna naturally want to not be on your phone because. The sunset's beautiful. And it's relaxing. And so, and if you pair that with a post evening walk, then you're, you know, then you're getting a little bit of postprandial glucose control and, uh, and getting that movement right.

[00:13:42] I love it. I love it. 

[00:13:43] Dr. Scott Sherr: Those are great, great ideas. The, the phone, the. Changes. You actually set this up from my phone. I just put it on red. Very easy, very red. Very. So red's another way to do it. I do usually do red at night. Um, but gray scale's another great option. Um, there's a lot of ways to make sure your phone's not digging you at all [00:14:00] times with make sure it's on do not disturb.

[00:14:02] Make sure none of your, uh, your phone applications are notifying you of anything unless you absolutely need to. Um, those kinds of things is, those are great. Uh, on my side. Jody, you took the first two I was thinking about, which was hydration and parasympathetic activation. I think just on that latter point, certainly working out a lot is a big one, but also having people take more breaks during the day, and this is a lot of us that just kind of go, go, go and have a hard time, not overscheduling ourselves.

[00:14:32] If we can build in for my clients, I've seen it very transformative, just building a couple small breaks in throughout the day. Talk about doing things like movement snacks or looking away from the screen at least for 30 minutes, not 30 minutes, 30 seconds even will work. I mean, just a small amount of time will rest your eyes and give you more of your focus back when you're back on it.

[00:14:53] So, um, I, it's a difficult one for people to do because everybody feels like they're too busy. And I definitely fall [00:15:00] into this category sometimes as well. But if you can just build in some of this throughout the day, it could be pretty transformative. And. Once they start feeling more parasympathetic at certain times throughout the day, and they tend to feel better when they're actually, they're, they're able to oscillate back and forth better from the, from their autonomic nervous system perspective.

[00:15:17] And, uh, one of other thing that was I was actually thinking about is I had this one client that absolutely refused. I'm gonna work with you, doc, this is gonna be great. I'm really excited, but I'm not giving a pizza. I was like, okay, so every week or every two weeks, I'm gonna have my pizza. I don't care what you say, that's what I'm gonna do.

[00:15:36] And so he's in the food business and like really cool guy. Nice guy like him a lot. And I said, look. It's fine. You know, it is your choice. Let's see how you feel once you get started. And then within about about six months, he's like, you know, doc, I'm feeling great, but every time I have pizza, like I feel like crap for like five or six days.

[00:15:54] Right. I'm like, well now you know the difference between what you, what it feels like to feel good and [00:16:00] what it happens when you kind of go off and, and have your pizza. And he wasn't the type of guy that have like one or two slices of pizza. No, it was, he is a full pie of pizza, kinda. Oh yeah. And so. I was like, you could go down a couple slices.

[00:16:13] He's like, you know what, no, I'm just done. I'm gonna stop eating it. And then maybe a couple. Maybe a month later he comes back. I'm like, I can't believe how much better I feel. It's amazing. I can't believe that. I, I just, I could feel so much better not eating pizza. I'm like, yeah, there you go, man. Not a big deal.

[00:16:28] It just, not everybody's ready to, to make that change. Not everybody's ready to say, I'm done with X, Y, Z, and, um, and. At some point, you know, when you're doing the health optimization framework with clients, it gets to a point where they're feeling so much better. Dr. Ted, you like to say, you get them to the feeling, the addicted feeling or getting them addicted to the feeling of health is what you's typically say.

[00:16:52] Of wellness. Yeah, wellness. And that's really what happened with this particular guy because he, the longer he would go without pizza, the better he would feel. And then he'd go back to [00:17:00] his pizza and then he'd just feel like crap again. And so it's that, it's that feeling. And this is something that. I think is really interesting.

[00:17:08] If you're eating like all the time, you don't necessarily feel any different from day to day because you're always eating that way, right? And then when you start feeling and eating better, eating cleaner, and you eat poorly. You are going to feel it more than if you were eating every day poorly. And we've all had these experiences before, especially when you're younger.

[00:17:26] I mean, I grew up, you know, very healthy in the son of a chiropractor and like if I ever had anything unhealthy when I was a kid, I'd feel terrible because I wasn't used to having anything. But like the fake chocolate stuff called. Carib and like, and Oh, I love carib, things like that. Oh, I couldn't stand it as a kid.

[00:17:43] I was so angry that I had to eat that stuff. Um, but anyway, so, but as you get addicted to this feeling, you want that feeling more often. And that's kind of the. The, the beneficial side effect of, of doing what we do. And I guess the third one that I would mention right now, and this is [00:18:00] actually a recommendation from Dr.

[00:18:02] Ted and some of my clients, which was the sleep divorce, which is we have a lot of patients that have partners that snore or they snore themselves and. Sleeping in a separate bedroom from their partner is transformative to their health. They sleep better and also to their relationships, which are significantly better as well.

[00:18:23] I looked at these statistics. It was around almost one in two couples. Were sleeping in different bedrooms as this evolves. I mean, I see this in my own, in my, with my own family members. They'd easily sleep in the bed the same together. But somebody likes to sleep late. Somebody likes to sleep early, or somebody snores or whatever.

[00:18:40] Somebody farts a lot, whatever it might be, and so. Um, and as a result of all those things, it's better in a lot of cases. It's better for their, uh, their autonomic nervous system. It's better for their health. It's better for their, you know, overall wellbeing. So even doing something like that can go a long way too.

[00:18:56] Dr. Ted Achacoso: Yeah, I usually like to cite the study where, you know, they did [00:19:00] a, you know, um, um, the monitoring of the cortisol levels, um, uh, the, the, the, the blood was spike. The, the cortisol was spiking at each snore of the partner. So you could see these, so tooth, you know, regular, so tooth spikes of cortisol, and then they said, oh no, I love sleeping with my husband.

[00:19:17] It's like, did you see this? This is the reason why you've been feeling so terrible in the mornings. 

[00:19:23] Jodi Duval: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think, um, Scott, back to your point about that self-affirming, you know, health habits, I think it's quite, um, incredible when we're talking about really substantial, um, leaps and bounds when people are becoming healthy and learning their bodies.

[00:19:40] I think it's. That, that is my most, um, noticeable and, um, like good feeling from like, I've done my job when they come in and start making suggestions before you've even mentioned it, and they say, oh look, I think I'm actually just not gonna eat that anymore. I think I'm just not gonna have the alcohol anymore.

[00:19:57] I think I, I just don't, I don't need that [00:20:00] anymore. I, I feel like I just can, can do this without it, and it's like, wow, this is incredible. You've just done, you know, like Dr. Ted says, you've got them to be addicted to wellness. And that's all they wanna do from then on. And it's, it's such a, yeah, such an incredible thing to see right in front of your eyes.

[00:20:16] Dr. Ted Achacoso: It's, it's just really, um, um, a pity that we were born to this world without any, you know, instruction manual on how, how to operate this body. And it goes into a cycle, you know, and when you come to understand how, uh, you know how it actually operates. You know, um, the rest of the world would be thinking differently because, you know, um, they're not actually, uh, taught properly, you know, biology.

[00:20:43] And one of the things that IE even thought before was actually starting, starting health education very young, right? Teaching how the body works, et cetera. That's why I admire books like, you know, why we poop, you know, and, uh, why we fart in all these little things that, that are natural body processes.[00:21:00] 

[00:21:00] But, um, for me, my, my, um. No, I have, I have very funny, uh, recommendations that were actually funny because they worked right. Uh, the, the first one of course is, uh, refers to, uh, you know, we are all experts in our health optimization, uh, fields, right? And. I have clients, a particular one who was not a physician, what was pretending to be one, and, you know, uh, my client for six years, right?

[00:21:27] And, and so, uh, we tried all these things and, and each time I would give a protocol, I didn't know that he was adjusting the protocol, right? According to what he, he knew what he was reading, and so on and so forth. So. The fourth year, he finally gave up and said, and, and, and, and confessed to me. He said, you know, Dr.

[00:21:49] Ted, uh, so he said, he said, so he said, Dr. Ted, I finally, uh, understand how it is to work with you. And I said, how is it to [00:22:00] work with me? Because, you know. We got his, uh, uh, home I, or his, uh, measure of ventral resistance down from six, you know, to, to 1.8, I think, you know, uh, and so on. And, and, and this is, this is, these are not no small changes, right?

[00:22:17] And we got his GERD under control without, uh, pro pump inhibitors and so on. And he said, you know. I should just follow your protocols straight through because, and then he showed me the years and years of changes that he made to the protocol. So it is like, what's the use of uh uh, the datadriven, right?

[00:22:39] We're data-driven health optimization medicine, and our lifestyle advice actually follows from the. So all my lifestyle advice, uh, to him were actually based on what was coming from the nutrient metabolome, the hormone metabolome and so on. So, uh, you know, so, and what I didn't know, because he was, you know, well, you know, um, he was more brilliant [00:23:00] than I was and, you know, had had more, uh, experience with all of these different types of supplements.

[00:23:05] Rather modify this, uh, things. But, but then, you know, um, uh, his son actually challenged me. He said, Dr. Ted, if he could, if he could get my, my father to, um, to, uh, uh, to sleep in a, a supine position, you know, uh, because he's been like this forever and ever, you know, then I will really believe you. And I got him basically sleeping in a spine position after six months, right?

[00:23:33] For the GERD without any pro and pump inhibitors, et cetera. Mm-hmm. So, you know. Mm-hmm. Uh, and, and, and those are, those are all, um, you know, lifestyle changes that are data-driven, which we always do in health optimization medicine practice now for the, for the really, you know, that, that, that, that was a fun one because it took him four years to realize how it was to work with.

[00:23:56] Right. And then get the results that he wanted. [00:24:00] But for me, the, the, the, the things that are very difficult to, to, uh, take advice on are eating. You know that, right? So I ask people, uh, it's like. Can, you know, can, so you asked a difficult question first, right? So can you take out this, these food classes for me?

[00:24:17] It's like, oh no, doctor, I can't change the way I eat or, or what I eat. I say, well, okay then, um, can you give me this time for you to eat? You know, uh, can we limit your eating to 12 hours? Not a shame. You know, you have, you give yourself permission to eat for, eat for 16 hours. That sucks. So, so. So, uh, I said, okay, you know, um, uh, can you limit it for 12 hours?

[00:24:41] My 12 hours? You get mitochondrial. Vais said, oh, yeah, I, you know, I can, I can give you the time, and they report back. But even just after two weeks of doing it, they really, really like the energy that they derive from just a 12 hour fast. Your R 12 R feast, right? And then it's like, okay, you're [00:25:00] already feeling better, so why don't we decrease it now to like 10 hours, right?

[00:25:03] Uh, of, of feeding and that they can follow. They, they are, they're actually more willing to give up, uh, the, uh, uh, the, the, the time for, for, for, uh, the discipline, right? They, they give the time for the discipline rather than what they eat. And then after that, then. It's like, oh. And then they go, oh, what else can I do now?

[00:25:25] Now you can actually push in, you know, that ice cream that you, you, uh, you, uh, ate today? You know that the breast is your testosterone for 24 hours. You remember this, you know, and then you, and some of them are unable to correlate, you know, for example, a migraine, uh, that occurs, uh, uh, two days after eating something.

[00:25:44] Now they can, they become sensitive to their bodies, right? So, so that's one. And then from, from traveling a lot also, that's where I actually devise a sleep anchoring technique, right? Your day begins at the time that you sleep. And, um, and, uh, a [00:26:00] corollary to that, which I do now is a meal anchoring technique.

[00:26:03] So if you're traveling, I maintain at least, you know, a one constant meal according to the time zone where I usually am. Right. Uh, and like, and like before my, my time zone's really so awful, right? But at least now, you know, there is some stability if you're going to be in a, in a particular place after two weeks, you can be sure that your system would already have adjusted to the time.

[00:26:27] Right. Unless you basically are just shifting it back and forth too much that the body cannot catch catch up. And I, I'm guilty of that. But for example, if I eat dinner here at, uh, seven 30, uh, in the evening, right, because my last, my last swallow is at 8:00 PM you know, and my next meal would be at, uh, noon, uh, on the next day, which is have an eight hour feeding window.

[00:26:53] So. The, then when I am in Manila, you know, then I would eat breakfast at [00:27:00] 7:30 AM at when we are at the 12 hour time difference, like, you know, damn daylight savings time. Right? So, uh, and we are daily, no damn standard time actually, because then it becomes 13 hours. Right? So, um, uh, so that's sort of like the, the anchoring end.

[00:27:18] Since my clients are also, you know, a lot of of them are jet setters. They actually like, uh, the idea of, you know, setting the time that they eat in any new place that they go. And now I'm teaching them the meal a anchoring because the gut is really the last thing to straighten out in jet lag. So be kind to that organ, you know, your gut, gut microbiota, uh, is now considered a postnatal natal organ, right?

[00:27:44] Uh, we have a. Um, mojo, uh, got the gut immune system. Um, and uh, there we actually teach that, you know, it's, it's about two kilos and it's your 70% are gut bacteria. So, so, you know, these, these are [00:28:00] basic things that, um, uh, that, you know, lifestyle wise, you know, I, I recommend to my patient, of course, the, of course the, the one that's most shocking to them is, uh, presenting them their toxic, uh, their, their.

[00:28:13] Uh, toxin panel, right? And you go, wow. See here, take a look at your mercury level, your lead level, your this level. And they go, okay, now you have my attention. What do I do? But first you have to find the cost, right? Um, you know, they're so proud to be like, pescatarians, no, I eat only fish. Yeah, there, look at your mercury, right?

[00:28:31] So. So, uh, you know, and, and then they become aware, right? Of what they eat. So, so all the lifestyle advice that, um, we are giving at health optimization medicine, you know, were, uh, data-driven in that lifestyle advice. Even, for example, for lack of sleep, you see the inflammation rise, the, you know, uh, the heisen DVC reactive protein, uh, all psoriasis, right?

[00:28:55] So. So, um, uh, you know, so we [00:29:00] could, we could see, uh, all of these things, uh, actually, uh, uh, coming together in the, uh, report, right? So when, so we, we don't give lifestyle advice, uh, willy-nilly, right? Or we're data driven. And our, our advice is actually based on health markers, you know, um. I've said this many times, my quarrel with lifestyle medicine is you do not gauge health by disease markers.

[00:29:25] You know, just because your disease markers are moving doesn't mean you're healthy and you have to use health markers to determine that you're healthy. Right. So, um, um, my funniest however, and this will be the last one, is, um, you know, um, I knew this husband and wife and they were polishing off a bottle of red wine every night between the two of them.

[00:29:46] And so know vice is the most difficult thing to take out right in, in our client's lifestyle. So, smoking, uh, and uh, drinking. And I said, you know, you know, and the wife has always been [00:30:00] complaining of her waistline, et cetera. I said, you know, you know, you wanna stop everything. Let's stop all of your hormones and stop all of your nutrients, et cetera.

[00:30:09] Let's just try one thing. Stop polishing off a bottle of wine between you and your husband. Every night, night, just for one month. And then she shows up at my lecturer in like a, a very tight, a skirt with a very tight waist. And I said, woo, what are you doing here? Oh, I'm just showing off. I followed your advice.

[00:30:30] And she apparently, apparently lost four inches off her waist by just doing that. See? And it's, it's for just. Four weeks, you know, you could see, you know, from, uh, from something like that. So, uh, so you could see that. Um, and, uh, it's a good thing that, you know, uh, uh, none of my, uh, I, I only had. In, in, in, I only had like a couple of smokers, right?

[00:30:57] For, for, uh, uh, [00:31:00] patients. But, uh, the, when, when they hear what my method is, it's sort of like painful, make it economically painful for patients. So, um, for those of you willing to, who wanna quit but don't know how to quit and don't wanna use any of these strange stuff, you, you can try this, you know, you could, you could actually, um, say you, you consume one pack a day, right?

[00:31:20] So buy one pack and then. Uh, uh, go to the person that you love and trust the most. Pull out a stick and crush that, cut that stick. So it's an un smokable for that day. The next day, you do the same thing. The next day you do the same thing for 30 days the next month. Buy a pack again. This time you remove two sticks, so it gets more and more and more and more painful for you.

[00:31:48] But cigarette smoking, for example, is very hard, right? Like al uh, alcoholism, these are very, very hard. They actually need professionals, right? Uh, to, you actually need a, a professional to do this. And [00:32:00] this was a technique that I actually used for. A patient of mine when I was still, uh, uh, essentially teaching pharmacology and toxicology.

[00:32:09] So, uh, you know, that it was like, shit, you know, these things are like, like, uh, drinking and smoking. These things are actually weaned off very, very slowly. Right. Especially those with like 10 years of, uh, 20 years of drinking and so on. You cannot just do. Cold Turkey and this stuff, right? In fact, for example, it's much easier to, to, to deal with a cocaine addict, right?

[00:32:33] It's so much easier to, to do that than with alcohol. And the worst of all, which no one, we should be a schedule one drug is actually refined sugar. That should, that is the true schedule one drug. You know, alcohol, you know, is a refined sugar. So, so you know, guys, so when you think of lifestyle advice.

[00:32:53] These are the things that, that are the small things that you think they're very small things that a patient or client can [00:33:00] do, but actually have a major effect on their lives, like drinking water, you know, um, uh, limiting their, their food intake, uh, for, for, uh, uh, a few hours. Right. Uh, more than they're used to.

[00:33:14] Um, uh, being able to check, uh, whether or not they're actually eating toxins or having metal aid in food, you know, um, sleeping on time, eating on time. You know, these are very simple things that have huge effect in lifestyle. And as I said, you know. 80% of your success will be on compliance, and it's not just on compliance of taking the supplements.

[00:33:35] It's in the compliance with the simple lifestyle changes that are data-driven in health optimization, medicine and practice. I repeat this, we do not look at illness, medicine, disease markers for improvement. We look at the meta for the markers of health. 

[00:33:55] Dr. Allen Bookatz: Alright, uh, 

[00:33:58] Dr. Scott Sherr: thank you Dr. Ted. Yes. [00:34:00] Metabolomics also the first module of the Health Optimization and Medicine and Practice, uh, essential Certification.

[00:34:07] That's what I'm trying to say. And so if you guys are interested, take a look@homehope.org. That's who sponsors this podcast, the Smarter Harder Podcast. This is what we do this for, is. Have fun, of course, and then present information that we hope you all find interesting, enlightening in various ways.

[00:34:23] We've been in, most of us, actually, all of us here have been in clinical practice for a long time now. Dr. Ted, much longer than the rest of us, although you can tell from his teleme or epigenetic ages, but, 

[00:34:34] Dr. Ted Achacoso: well, my, my thanks are now, I, I just filed them, you know, no good. What did they say? Long in the tooth.

[00:34:44] Dr. Scott Sherr: Well, thank everybody for listening to another episode of the Smarter and Harder podcast where we give you 1 cent solutions, 64,000 questions. We'll catch you next time on an episode soon, either with us or with some amazing clinicians or other guests that we have here on a regular basis. If you like this podcast, don't [00:35:00] forget to like and subscribe below so you never miss an episode, and we'll catch you all next time.

[00:35:04] See you later. 

[00:35:05] Jodi Duval: See.
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