281. Dr. Phil Reveals The Exercise That Rewires Your Brain in Minutes

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Phil to unpack the simple habits behind five decades of work in human behavior, why anxiety is fear without a real threat, the four questions he asks himself to stay honest, and the one exercise he says rewires your brain. But there's one line he keeps coming back to that changes how you see everything: there will never be another you. CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARY’S VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Get Dr. Phil’s book, “WE’VE GOT ISSUES: How You Can Stand Strong for America’s Soul and Sanity”: https://bit.ly/4w9lLjn Listen to "The Dr. Phil Podcast" on all your favorite platforms! YouTube: https://bit.ly/4eZriDg Spotify: https://bit.ly/4oIipRM Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/4ak9eBd Connect with Dr. Phil Website: https://bit.ly/4xNxWUz YouTube: https://bit.ly/4xLmoRH Instagram: https://bit.ly/4eq84GS Facebook: https://bit.ly/3SmTAyY TikTok: https://bit.ly/4esjytx X: https://bit.ly/44qXwRN LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4etXz5u Thank you to our partners A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD AIRES: "ULTIMATE20 " FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp CYMBIOTIKA: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4tjyluP GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC H2TAB: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW Watch the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 - Intro of Show 01:38 - A chaotic, sometimes violent childhood 04:27 - Recognizing self-destruction firsthand 07:11 - The Salvation Army game that changed everything 11:39 - The injury that ended football 13:35 - Finding the north star in your 70s 16:53 - Anxiety and the lies we tell ourselves 18:34 - The four questions to test your thinking 19:35 - Living with intention vs. autopilot 20:40 - There will never be another you 22:24 - How to find your purpose 25:49 - Reframing failure as elimination 27:28 - An appointment with yourself 28:00 - Tennis, discipline, and family history 31:43 - What it means to be an ultimate human Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation. Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Anxiety, depression and loneliness are the highest they've ever been since records started being kept among our young people. If people are having anxiety in the absence of genuine threat, then they're obviously telling themselves something that isn't true.

• 0:15Gary Brecka?

  You said in the past that the internal dialogue of anxiety is fatalistic.

• 0:19Speaker 00

  You have to live with intention because if you get up and you're just reactive to what happens in your life, instead of choosing what you do, then you're just living reactively.

• 0:30Gary Brecka?

  I think the fear of failure grips a lot of people and keeps them from taking that steps forward.

• 0:34Speaker 00

  You've got to find that thing that really fills you up and the way to do that is you have to start asking yourself questions. What matters to me? There will never be another you. What are you going to do with it?

• 0:47Gary Brecka?

  For someone that's watching this podcast, how do they go about figuring out what their purposes?

• 0:52Speaker 00

  If you're looking for an answer, you've got to start asking the right questions. And some of those right questions are...

• 1:11Gary Brecka?

  Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecka, where we go down the road of everything: anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. Today is definitely one of those in-between podcasts. Today's guest is arguably the most recognized figure in mental health in all of modern American media. You know who he is, but what you may not know is the backstory. So, welcome to the podcast, Dr. Phil.

• 1:40Speaker 00

  Been waiting on this, looking forward to it.

• 1:41Gary Brecka?

  Have you really?

• 1:42Speaker 00

  I have.

• 1:43Gary Brecka?

  I've been waiting on this too, so I don't know what... We've got to talk to our teams about what took them so long. But it's an absolute honor to be sitting on the stage with you.

• 1:50Speaker 00

  Well, same here.

• 1:51Gary Brecka?

  And, you know, I would argue that the vast majority of my audience is very familiar with you and your work and four-time New York Times bestselling author, 21-season show. As I said, without a doubt, the most recognized face in mental health in all of...

• 2:10Speaker 00

  I've been at it a long time.

• 2:12Gary Brecka?

  Yes, you have. But you know, what fascinated me in preparing for this podcast was I went deep down a rabbit hole on the backstory because I find on my podcast that there's a common theme that runs through my podcast. And that is that the most impactful, passionate, purpose-driven people aren't necessarily the most credentialed, but they've solved a problem in their life. And in solving that problem, they became really passionate about their purpose. And I feel like you fall neatly into that category because I

• 2:54Gary Brecka?

  was unaware of your childhood background. And, you know, you grew up in the presence of an alcoholic father, which probably shaped your narrative around, you know, drug and alcohol addiction. Been sober for 55 years, haven't had a drink in 55 years.

• 3:09Speaker 00

  No, I've not.

• 3:11Gary Brecka?

  But could you walk us through that? Because you describe your childhood as very chaotic, sometimes violent, and there were periods of homelessness even. And I think when people look at the iconic figure today that's dulling out usable advice, they don't realize where that empathy comes from.

• 3:32Speaker 00

  Well, you know, I feel really blessed in many respects because I feel like every life experience I've ever had has prepared me for what I'm now doing. I mean, I do. I think everything I've ever done has prepared me for that next level of what I was going to do. And because I've had a lot of different life experiences, I think it's put me in a position where I can relate to people from all walks of life. You know, I've got

• 4:10Speaker 00

  a bachelor's, master's, PhD, and postdoctoral degree, all in psychology, clinical psychology, behavioral medicine, forensic psychology, and all, but...

• 4:25Speaker 00

  What really I think has been a differentiator for me is I've, I have been poor. I have been without a home, living on the streets. I have been in business, I have been in a lot of different walks of life. So when I encounter people from those different walks of life, I have some commonality with them, I can understand what their experiences have been. I've never been involved with drugs or alcohol, but I've lived with it. So when I meet people and I hear the excuses, I hear the justifications,

• 5:06Speaker 00

  I see the self-destructiveness, I recognize it because I lived with it, you know, growing up. I've lived with the chaos, I know what it does to their kids, because I've been one of those kids. So I think that being through a lot of different experiences have really prepared me to help a lot of people from different experiences. And, you know, when I was growing up, it's, we moved every three years, for one thing. So you're always the new kid.

• 5:42Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 5:43Speaker 00

  And when you live with an alcoholic father, you know, there are just certain things that other people don't even think about. Like you never bring friends home, ever, never. You don't ever bring a friend home from school because you don't know what you're gonna find. You don't know if it's gonna be chaotic, violent, all the windows are gonna be kicked out, if the car's gonna be in the front room or in the garage. You have no idea what you're gonna find, because you've found all of those things in the past.

• 6:14Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 6:14Speaker 00

  So you don't bring friends home, because you're gonna, you know, you're gonna be embarrassed if you do. So you just live a completely different life, and you learn to depend on yourself really early on. And, you know, I had three sisters, two older and one younger. Uh, the two older were married eleven times between them.

• 6:37Gary Brecka?

  Wow.

• 6:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, you think, how is that possible? Well, you start really early.

• 6:41Gary Brecka?

  And make a lot of mistakes.

• 6:43Speaker 00

  And both of them wound up married thirty, forty years, um, in the end.

• 6:48Gary Brecka?

  Really?

• 6:48Speaker 00

  But early on, they were, you know, getting married every time you turned around. So, uh, there was chaos and unpredictability. So you learn, I can remember as early as the fifth or sixth grade,

• 7:05Speaker 00

  sitting on the curb thinking, I can't possibly be related to these people. I mean, even at that young age, I thought, these people are crazy. I can't possibly be related to these.

• 7:18Gary Brecka?

  How far apart are you from your sister?

• 7:19Speaker 00

  Uh, four years. I had one eight years older, four years older, and one four years younger. And, uh, we, my little sister, we're the only two still alive. We always said they had us in pairs, the two crazy ones and then the two normal ones.

• 7:35Gary Brecka?

  Well, you win, man, you're still here, making an impact.

• 7:37Speaker 00

  I'm still here, she's still here. And, uh, and we both had very productive lives, the other two, not so much, so.

• 7:44Gary Brecka?

  So, I mean, that ultimately wasn't what shaped you to go into mental health? I mean, that, that really began after your college football career, as you.

• 7:53Speaker 00

  You know, I got, I got really focused on this when I was actually twelve years old, which is an odd time to kind of take a direction. But at twelve years old, I got focused on figuring out why people do what they do and don't do what they don't do. Because I was playing on a football team in Oklahoma City, and we were really good, not nearly as good as we thought we were, but we were really good. And we had really flashy uniforms and great helmets and, and we had a, we had a game that rained out.

• 8:35Speaker 00

  And so on a Saturday, and so on Monday, the coach said, we got a call from the Salvation Army. And they have a team, they want to know if they can come over and scrimmage us, scrimmage with us today on Monday. And so he said, I told him, sure, so they're gonna be here, uh, any minute now. And about that time, two or three pickup trucks pulled up at the curb. Back then, you know, you could throw kids in the back of a pickup and drive around. Apparently, we didn't value children as much as we do now. Yeah, we didn't value kids as much as we do now. You just throw them back in the truck and a few fall out, that's no problem.

• 9:16Speaker 00

  Uh, but they, they, they fell out of those trucks, it looked like the Grapes of Wrath. I remember the kid lined up across from me, he had blue jeans on and he rolled them up to the knees so they looked like football pants.

• 9:29Gary Brecka?

  Wow.

• 9:30Speaker 00

  And he had on loafers instead of football shoes. And he had the number four on his shirt, which was a button up shirt over his shoulder pads. And he had the number four on in masking tape. And we're snickering in the huddle, like, why wouldn't he use magic marker? That's gonna come off. And we were so stupid. I mean, he, he didn't put on a magic marker because that was his shirt. He had to wear that to school the next day, you know, so he did it in tape. And, you know, we're laughing and snickering and we didn't have a kickoff because it was just a scrimmage, but they snapped that ball.

• 10:10Speaker 00

  And that number four was lined up across from me and Gary, that kid hit me so hard, it still hurts when it rains. I mean, that was 60 years ago. They beat us like they were clapping for a barn dance.

• 10:25Gary Brecka?

  It was 100 to 6, right?

• 10:27Speaker 00

  Oh my God, no, no, that was in college. I have lots of failure. Um, but they, they beat us something terrible. It was.

• 10:35Gary Brecka?

  Really?

• 10:36Speaker 00

  And I remember stumbling off that field and my, my dad was there to pick me up.

• 10:44Speaker 00

  And I said, what the hell happened? And he said, well, they just handed you your ass on a platter is what happened. And I remember being so envious of those kids. These Salvation Army kids, because I thought if they can do so much with so little. They had no equipment, they had no nothing. I, I wanted what they had. They were hungry. They were motivated. They got a chance to play on grass. I, I was talking to one of them afterwards and he said, you know, it's like to play where there's not a manhole cover on the field.

• 11:21Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 11:21Speaker 00

  And I thought, that's when it really got to me. I, I thought, I really want to understand what makes people do what they do. And don't do what they don't do. And I got really focused on motivation and what made people tick. And that's when I really bought in to human functioning, psychology and emotion. That's when it really triggered and I, I started reading stuff from that time forward. And that's what led me to where I am today.

• 11:51Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, well, first of all, thank God there was no social media back then. And that game would have been forever documented in the record.

• 11:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, I did lose a hundred to six in college when I was playing for University of Tulsa. Houston beat us a hundred to six. I was actually in the infirmary during that game, but I was on that team. Uh, so yeah, I've been beat a lot.

• 12:12Gary Brecka?

  And at, at some point in that career, you sustained a pretty traumatic brain injury.

• 12:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, I got, uh, I got a pretty good head injury playing football. That ended my career. So I took up tennis.

• 12:23Gary Brecka?

  And you're still playing tennis today?

• 12:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, I started college on a football scholarship and finished on a tennis scholarship.

• 12:30Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. Well, I want to kind of drag this into, into where we are today because I think, you know, from the outside looking in at such a storied career, you behave more like a startup company than somebody who's had a decades-long, successful career.

• 12:47Gary Brecka?

  And I want to drill into that a little bit because I think, you know, there's some fascinating things about the human emotion and motivation and psychology that really empower people to do things far beyond the norm. Like, I'm always fascinated by athletes, not that just broke a record, but that sustain a level of performance over the duration of their entire career. Like the Michael Jordans, you know, or Tiger Woods, or, you know, Lance Armstrong, seven back-to-back Tour de Frances. I look at you the same way, and I wonder how, having the childhood that you did, and then achieving what I think by any means would be the epitome

• 13:29Gary Brecka?

  of career success, how is it that now in your 70s, managing type 2 diabetes, which you also do with your wife, she was diagnosed in 2001 alongside you, so I really want to hear what the kitchen's like, because that's what my audience is going to want to hear. But after having such a successful career as an author, as a TV personality, the level of impact, now in your 70s, maybe busier than you've ever been, with a media company and a book a year, and starting a new show, what is it that keeps that North Star for you?

• 14:07Speaker 00

  Well, you know, I feel like if you don't have passion in your life, if there's not something you're really excited about, that to me would be the worst possible existence. I can't even imagine waking up in a day and having no purpose, no passion, not having something that you feel like you need to do. And I just, I don't think I measure my self-worth

• 14:50Speaker 00

  as a function of what I achieve, but I definitely feel like I live my life with intention. And I'm a strong believer that you need to be who you are on purpose, and you need to own it. And... And there are things that I'm passionate about. And I see them happening and I, I, I know that I have something to contribute. I, I don't think I'm the be all, end all. I'm not the repository of all knowledge in psychology or psychosocial functioning. But I do think I have something to contribute.

• 15:34Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  And to see a, a problem and, and not do anything about it, to me is just unthinkable. I, I, I, I can't imagine that. And I, I think the, one of the keys to my success has been, I, I, I try to solve problems nobody else is even working on.

• 15:55Gary Brecka?

  Hmm.

• 15:56Speaker 00

  Uh, there are things that people ignore, deny, overlook, or whatever that, that will jump out to me and I will, I will see those things and I, I, I try to grab them by the horns and, and, and address those. Like, you know, right now, uh, anxiety, depression and loneliness are the highest they've ever been since records started being kept among our young people, uh, school age people. Um, that has to be dealt with. Somebody has to deal with that.

• 16:30Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 16:31Speaker 00

  Um, our educational system is not on the verge of collapse. It is collapsing.

• 16:38Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm. I would agree with that.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  I mean, a third of our co- high school graduates can't read at the most functional level, but yet they're, they're graduating from high school. How is that possible?

• 16:50Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 16:51Speaker 00

  Um, I, I, I, I see these things happening and I, I think somebody has to call these things out and deal with them. So.

• 17:00Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  I, I, I see things that, like, I couldn't possibly have these awarenesses and sit home watching the drapes fade. I, it's just not, that's not who I am.

• 17:12Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. You, you said in the past that the internal dialogue of anxiety is fatalistic.

• 17:17Speaker 00

  Um, yeah.

• 17:19Gary Brecka?

  And first of all, what do you, what do you mean by that? And, and how do you grapple with that in your own life?

• 17:26Speaker 00

  Well. You know, look, we don't react to what happens in the world. We don't react to what happens in our life. We react to what we say to ourselves about what happens in life. It's, it is purely a matter of what representations we make to ourselves about what happens. If something happens to me, oh, this is the worst thing ever in the world has happened, then we're going to have a really oversized reaction to it. If we're in complete denial, then we're gonna run over the cliff, over the edge of the cliff.

• 18:07Speaker 00

  We really have to listen and check ourselves to see if we're telling ourselves the truth and if what we're saying is rational. Is it true? Is it, is it based on fact? Is it in our best interest? Does it get us what we want? Does it protect and prolong our lives? If we're not being rational with ourselves, then we're our own worst enemy. So I, I think we, we have to monitor what we're telling ourselves because that's what we're reacting to. And anxiety is a, a really exaggerated fear reaction in the absence of a clear and present danger.

• 18:48Speaker 00

  So if, if people are having anxiety in the absence of genuine threat, then they're obviously telling themselves something that isn't true. And I, I try to get people to challenge what they're saying so they can react in a, in a rational way.

• 19:07Gary Brecka?

  And, and how, how do people begin to reframe their, their environment on their own, independently? So as these things come up during their day, how do you reframe what you, what you're perceiving is, is happening to you? Are there any exercises that you could go through?

• 19:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, I think those, I think the four things about testing your own thinking is, is really important. And, and that's what I mean by saying you have to live with intention. Because if you get up and you're just reactive to what happens in your life, instead of choosing what you do, if, if you're doing what you're doing on Wednesday...

• 19:51Speaker 00

  Primarily because it's what you were doing on Tuesday. And you do on Thursday, what you do on Thursday, primarily because it's what you did on Tuesday and Wednesday. As opposed to it being what you want to do on Thursday because you intentionally made the choice. This is who I want to be and what I want to do. Then you're just living reactively. You're in the river, you're just going with the flow. And I, I ask people to stop and think, am I really being who I want to be? Doing what I really want to do? Or am I just living an assigned life, what everybody else expects me to do?

• 20:35Speaker 00

  Cause I think it's, I challenge everybody to, to star in their own life. If you don't star in your own life, who's going to? I mean, and I don't care if you're a plumber or a school teacher, or you have your own television show, or whatever. You got to star in your own life, which means it needs to focus on what you have to contribute. Because think about this, you're Gary Brecka. Now, there may be other people that share that name. There may be a Gary Brecka up in Idaho or somewhere else. I don't know. But you, there will never be another you. In the history of the world, up until now, and after you're gone, there will never be another you.

• 21:19Speaker 00

  What are you gonna do with it? And I challenge people to ask themselves that. There will never be another you. This is it, one shot. What are you gonna do with it? And if people don't ask themselves that question, then, you know, this is not a dress rehearsal. This is it. And so you've got to decide, I'm gonna be who I am on purpose. I'm gonna do the things that I truly believe. Are important and that gets a lot easier if you have children that you love and are passionate about, or you have a career or something that you think is really meaningful. Sometimes if you're a bit lost and you don't know what you care about, then that's a steeper hill to climb. You need to find out what that is.

• 22:04Gary Brecka?

  Right. You know, I feel very blessed because I believe that God's revealed His true purpose to me and my purpose and my passion have greatly aligned. My family is on the journey with me. I love the team that's on the journey with me. We get daily reminders of the impact that we're making. And, but I get the question all the, all the time about, I see what you mean about purpose and passion, but how do I know what my purpose is? How do I go out and find my, my purpose? What are some ways that I can internalize or review my own dialogue and figure out what my purpose is? Because for people that do uncover what that is, it reminds me of those signs you used, that you're supposed to hang on your

• 22:47Gary Brecka?

  office wall that says, find something you love to do. You'll never work a day in your life. I thought that was horseshit for 28 years until my purpose was revealed to me. And now I know how truly meaningful that is. But for someone that's watching this podcast that, that identifies with what you're saying, how do they go about figuring out what their purposes?

• 23:09Speaker 00

  I think you have to really start asking yourself what matters to you. And it, it really is kind of interviewing yourself like, like we're doing right now with you talking to me. I think you have to start asking yourself, and I think it's important to write things down, not type them up on an iPad. Write them down. Because, let me tell you, these things right here are crippling us.

• 23:37Gary Brecka?

  They are.

• 23:38Speaker 00

  They're, they're really crippling us. It changes your brain when you actually write things down. But I think you have to, if you're looking for an answer, you've got to start asking the right questions. And some of those right questions are, what really matters to me?

• 23:58Speaker 00

  What am I willing to invest time, effort, energy in? What makes me feel fulfilled? We have lots of different... When you think about currency, most people think about money. But there are lots of different kinds of currency. There's monetary currency, psychological currency, spiritual currency, social currency.

• 24:23Gary Brecka?

  Relationships, yeah.

• 24:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, there's all kinds of currency. And you have to ask yourself, what is your currency? And what pays you off? What do you do? What do you work on? What do you achieve that gives you currency that matters to you? Makes you feel good? Makes you feel fulfilled? And how tragic it would be to spend your life and become the best accountant that ever existed, only to discover that isn't what you wanted to do.

• 25:06Speaker 00

  That what you wanted to do was be a farmer, or a singer, or a dancer, or whatever, but you became the best accountant that ever was. You just didn't care about accounting. You've got to find that thing that really fills you up. And the way to do that is you have to start asking yourself questions. What matters to me? What do I feel good when I do? What do I feel fulfilled when I read about, or address, or participate in, in some way? And if you don't start asking those questions, you're never going to get to the answers. If you just assume that what you're doing is just your lot in life,

• 25:48Speaker 00

  and you don't ask the questions, you're not ever, ever going to get to any kind of real, meaningful passion, unless you just happen to be lucky. Unless you just happen to... Maybe your dad was a fisherman, and you fish, and you just love it. Then great, you hit the jackpot.

• 26:07Gary Brecka?

  You hit the jackpot.

• 26:07Speaker 00

  But if you aren't feeling fulfilled, you need to start asking yourself a lot of questions. What could I do? And you're going to kiss some frogs along the way. You are, you're going to try some things, that didn't work. But what does? You will find what does.

• 26:22Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, I think the fear of failure grips a lot of people and keeps them from taking that steps forward. We do it on our team all the time. We talk about failing fast and getting back on mission.

• 26:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, but if you fail, is that really failure? Or have you just crossed one thing off that you don't have to worry about anymore? That wasn't it. So, did you fail or did you eliminate one thing?

• 26:43Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, that's reframing. I find you do that a lot. You just sort of reframe the narrative so that you don't receive it the same way that most people would. Let me back up for a second and talk about what a day in the life of Dr. Phil looks like. Exercise, nutrition. I will say, without revealing any of your medical information, you have managed your type 2 diabetes extraordinarily well, based on what I see in the record. And there are long-term manifestations that show, that prove, and we'll talk about this on your podcast, but that prove that you have done a good job over a very long period of time.

• 27:27Gary Brecka?

  Markers that you can't fake, like telomeres and hemoglobin A1C.

• 27:33Gary Brecka?

  So what it tells me is that you have some way of discipline that you apply to a daily routine, because we are a culmination of our daily habits. So, I already know that those daily habits are somewhat regimented and they're somewhat disciplined by your level of conditioning, your level of output, what I see in your labs, what I see in some of your other DNA testing. So what does that look like for you?

• 28:01Speaker 00

  Well, I'm kind of a...

• 28:05Speaker 00

  A creature of habit in that I make an appointment with myself every day for intentional exercise. I don't, you know, the easiest person to break an appointment with is yourself.

• 28:24Gary Brecka?

  Oh, no question.

• 28:25Speaker 00

  Because you don't disappoint anybody else.

• 28:26Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 28:27Speaker 00

  Except yourself.

• 28:28Gary Brecka?

  But you record that, though. You remember that.

• 28:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, you do.

• 28:32Gary Brecka?

  And you start to not trust yourself.

• 28:33Speaker 00

  But I've, I've made a commitment and I play tennis probably six or seven days a week at a really competitive level. I mean, the people, it's not hit and giggle tennis and it's not sit around and shoot the breeze. I mean, it's, I come off the tennis court.

• 28:53Gary Brecka?

  Crush the enemy.

• 28:54Speaker 00

  And I can wring my socks out. I mean, it's a, it's, it's hard workout, probably on average, six days a week. Sometimes it's seven. Sometimes I play twice a day. And that's been really important to me because everybody in my family, everybody else in my family was morbidly obese. I've got two nephews that are now dead, that passed in their 50s, that were over 500 pounds. My dad was obese, my mother was obese, my sisters were, everybody. I had triplets that were 5'4" by 5'2". They were, I mean, they were almost perfect squares.

• 29:37Gary Brecka?

  Wow.

• 29:38Speaker 00

  My whole, everybody in my family. And I, I just, I, I grew up in athletics and so I've always worked out and that was a great thing for me. I got in that habit real early and I just kept it up because that's one of my currencies. I enjoy it. It's my, it's my social life, it's my exercise, it's my decompression. It's, it's, it serves multiple purposes for me and.

• 30:08Gary Brecka?

  I love how you say work out with intention. You, you set an appointment to work out with intention. There's a lot to unpack there because I think it's the way that we frame things to ourselves, right? You, you don't let yourself out of that commitment.

• 30:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I, I gotta tell you, there are some days. That it's time to play. And I just so don't feel like it. I mean, I just so don't feel like it. And I just make myself do it.

• 30:39Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 30:39Speaker 00

  And 10 minutes in, 15 minutes in, I feel good and I'm glad I'm there and I'm going.

• 30:44Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, no, that happens to me all the time. It's like a cold plunge.

• 30:46Speaker 00

  I can barely get there.

• 30:47Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 30:47Speaker 00

  I can barely get out to the court. And in the warm up, I'm like, oh my God, kill me now.

• 30:53Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 30:54Speaker 00

  But then your blood gets flowing and you stretch out and everything and then you get going and you feel great.

• 31:01Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 31:01Speaker 00

  Uh, but I, I've learned that I have to, I don't do it when I feel like it. I, I, I just do it because if I only did it when I felt like it, I'd probably do it a third of the time.

• 31:13Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 31:13Speaker 00

  Uh, because I tape all day and, yeah, I've, I've taped in, in LA from, you know, like two hours in the morning and fly here and then tape an interview here. And then race and go to the court and I've got jet lag and I've been on camera four hours and all that.

• 31:32Gary Brecka?

  Never regret it, yeah.

• 31:32Speaker 00

  And I think, oh God, I still feel like it, but I do it anyway. And I just, I've made that commitment to myself and I keep it.

• 31:38Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 31:39Speaker 00

  And.

• 31:39Gary Brecka?

  It's paid dividends for you, for sure.

• 31:41Speaker 00

  And even if I've been out of town, Robin will meet me at the door with my tennis stuff and say, you know, because she knows this is going to go a lot better.

• 31:47Gary Brecka?

  Go play tennis.

• 31:48Speaker 00

  She knows it's going to go a lot better if you get a workout in.

• 31:51Gary Brecka?

  I love that. My wife is the same way. So, um, Dr. Phil, I wind down all of my podcasts by asking my guests the same question. And, um, I'm really excited to hear your answer to this. There's no right or wrong answer to this question, but what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

• 32:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:12Speaker 00

  I probably have a different answer because I'm, I'm in front of millions of people every day. And, um, and I am a type 2 diabetic.

• 32:23Gary Brecka?

  Mm hmm.

• 32:23Speaker 00

  Um, and I, I think that.

• 32:29Speaker 00

  If I can set a good example, I don't hold myself out to be a paragon of mental health or whatever, but I think if I can set a good example as a husband, as a father, as a Christian, as a contributor to society in some way, then I think I'm doing a good thing.

• 33:07Speaker 00

  And I'm not perfect at any of those things, but I do them all with intention. Consciously think about what I'm doing and how I do it. And some days I do better than others in one area versus another, but I do live with intention and I think that's important. I don't like being reactive, I like being proactive. So I try to set a good example for whoever may be watching because I think I'm very fortunate to have a huge platform.

• 33:50Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 33:51Speaker 00

  And I think it's important to be a good steward of that.

• 33:54Gary Brecka?

  I would agree.

• 33:55Speaker 00

  And I think as long as I'm a good steward of it, then I'm entitled to keep it.

• 34:00Gary Brecka?

  Dr. Phil, it's been an honor to have you on the Ultimate Human Podcast. I feel blessed to be a part of your wellness journey and I hope you'll come back again so we can follow up.

• 34:08Speaker 00

  Well, I certainly hope we'll have a great follow up.

• 34:11Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, no, we will.

• 34:12Speaker 00

  All right, thanks so much. Thanks for having me.