644 Wellness Wisdom from the Masters

THE FIRST WEALTH IS HEALTH. Lately I have been bringing you some mashups, giving you some of the best advice on a specific topic and the response has been overwhelming. I know you love the long interviews, hearing about all aspects of someone’s life - and I’m not going to stop those. I love them too. But I wanted to take a moment to bring you a best of on something very important to me. It’s something that you need to think about if you want to truly achieve greatness, because without it you can’t go very fair. Yes, it's health and wellness. Without having good health, you can’t really enjoy your life. Trust me I know. I used to not care about my body at all. I worked all day. I would hardly sleep. I was putting on a lot of weight. So much so people started to call me Flewis (Fat Lewis). Once I started taking care of myself, that’s when everything changed. I started sleeping better, I had more confidence, and I was a lot more productive. That’s why for this episode of the School of Greatness, I am bringing you a wellness mash up. To talk about the relationship champions have with their bodies and how you can achieve the same thing, I bring you Aubrey Marcus. Discussing the importance of good habits and Whole30, you’ll hear from Melissa Hartwig. The importance of educating yourself and sleep is talked about by Shawn Stevenson. Lastly, to discuss body image and self worth I bring you back Kelly LeVeque. Learn all about the importance of health and wellness, on Episode 644. In This Episode You Will Learn: How champions treat their body (5:07) How you can start understanding the relationship with your body (7:04) The way you should look at your body (8:45) Best way to start new habits (9:20) What your bones are actually made of (13:19) Why our self worth is tied to our body image (15:24) Why it’s important to celebrate your body (16:56) Plus much, much more. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 644, The Wellness Wisdom From The Masters.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:32Lewis Howes?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The first wealth is health." And yes, I believe in that. So much has shifted over the last five, six, seven years for me. When I first started out in my business, I was constantly grinding and hustling and putting in the hard work, but I was never taking care of my health. And it manifested in my body. You know, I gained lots of weight. People called me Fluist for Fat Lewis. I had just this low energy. It was always hard to go to sleep because I was up late drinking energy drinks and all these other things. And when I started to realize that my health is the most important thing,

• 1:12Lewis Howes?

  that it's going to actually benefit everything else in my life, that's when everything started to shift in my relationships, in my business, everything, and the way I perceived myself and the world. The first wealth is health. And we have been putting together this Masters Series, where I've been finding the most valuable insights from these inspiring leaders that we've had on in the past, and putting together these little mashup Masters Series. We did one on high-performance habits that has blown up. We did one on sex and love and relationships that blew up. We've done one on now wellness. And I'm super excited about this because...

• 1:53Lewis Howes?

  I want you guys to get insights. I want you to get some of the best of. I love the long form interviews and I know so many of you do because it's just so fascinating to hear people's stories and the insights of how they got from where they are to where they were and the struggles overcoming to building these billion dollar businesses or being the number one athlete in the world in their sport or whatever it is they're doing, becoming the best in the world. It fascinates me and I'm always intrigued. So this one is from the wellness masters who are going to be sharing some of their greatest insights on understanding health, holistic health, taking care of your body and so much

• 2:33Lewis Howes?

  more. I'd love to hear what you think. Let me know on Instagram @lewishouse. Leave a message on social media on Twitter and the link for this is lewishouse.com/644. We've got some inspiring people in today. Let me know which person you liked the most during this over on Twitter or Instagram. Before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the fan of the week. This is from Darcy in Arizona who said, "Lewis has a very refreshing way of interviewing his guests and creating beautiful content on a variety of topics. I love the courage that you show through talking about your weaknesses, but also honoring your strengths as well. I am a big fan and new to the podcast arena. A true test to

• 3:17Lewis Howes?

  me is how I feel after each discussion. I usually listen while walking my dogs and all I can say is that by the time I get home, I feel inspired, joyful and encouraged to be a little bit better each day." So, thank you so much. Love the book, The Mask of Masculinity as well. I have five daughters and cannot wait to share with them. So, I appreciate it. Darcy Sisson, you are the fan of the week. I appreciate you and everyone who leaves a review over on iTunes or on the podcast app. It means the world to us. If you haven't left a review yet, make sure to do so as we share out the fan of the week each and every week. All right, let's dive into this. The wellness wisdom from the masters. Let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy.

• 4:05Speaker 01

  Principle number seven is champions are in a serious relationship with their body. And I say a serious relationship because I think we often have turbulent and casual relationships with our body, you know, where it's sort of like an arms-length gentle truce, where we don't really trust our body, our body doesn't really trust us, we don't really know, like, what the hell's going on today? I don't know, I'm tired, this thing is going on. But champions demand performance on all aspects, and they demand like unified performance from their bodies, got to support what their mind's doing, no matter what's going on, and their mind has to support what their body's doing.

• 4:36Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 4:36Speaker 01

  So I've noticed with these champions, they know their body. It's like, it's like that long-term, 25-year, you know, relationship where these people know each other inside and out, and champions have that relationship with their body. And I noticed that when I started hanging out with Bodhi Miller. And Bodhi Miller, you know, he does all of the different tests. He'll test his lactate level, check his ketone level, so check his heart rate, but he's done that so many times that he's like a human biometric. He's like, yeah, you know, I'm pushing lactate numbers around like eight. I'm like, what are you talking about, dude? I'm like just gasping for air, you know? And he's like, yeah, I've been in this, you know, heart rate band of about 200 to 220 for this, which is optimal

• 5:17Speaker 01

  for this. And he just knows his body that way. Like, he knows when it's time to go on a ketogenic diet and do this kind of, he does like a ketogenic cleanse every now and then. And he's just so amazingly in tune with his body that it actually allows him more slack than a lot of other people. Because he likes to party, he likes to hang out too. I mean, that's part of the Bodhi Miller legend. But he knew his body so well. He knows when he can push his body in all aspects. He knows when he can take time off and when it's time to go, because he just has that kind of relationship where he can ask his body, like, are we gonna be all right here? Like, how much sleep do I need, body? And body be like, well, man, I mean, six would be great, but if you got four, we'll do it. And he's like, okay, body, I got you. So they have that kind of intimate

• 6:02Speaker 01

  relationship.

• 6:03Lewis Howes?

  How can we start understanding how to have that relationship with our own bodies? What can we do? What tests? What, on a basic level, so we feel like we have a general understanding, maybe some of these extreme things we won't be able to To do right away.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:14Lewis Howes?

  What can we do?

• 6:15Speaker 01

  Well, it depends on your field. You know, if you're an athlete, yeah, lactate numbers are going to be important. You know, knowing your heart rate, knowing these different thresholds, but knowing different central nervous system markers and things like that. But for most of us, it's going to get a lot more simple, like knowing what creates those energy resources, what causes the brain fog. You know, so really, understanding on a fundamental level, how the input equals the output, what you're putting in your body, what kind of foods? You know, paying attention to like, when you have that kind of foggy, tired feeling, diagnose it like, okay, what did I do? What was different? Was my sleep different? Was my food intake different? Did I eat something that perhaps caused the inflammation, which then traveled into my bloodstream and is clogging up my brain? Was my digestion working too hard?

• 6:59Speaker 01

  You know, and so really, that's a big piece of what the total human optimization picture is. It's just identifying these different correlations between the input and output in your body. And it can also be mental too, like what kind of frame of mind, you know, is best for my body? Because so much evidence is out there that mindset is crucial to physical health.

• 7:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And Aubrey actually has an exercise we put in the School of Greatness book. So for those listening who have the book, in the chapter on mastering your, your body and your health, uh, there's an exercise at the end to find out what's missing in your health, to figure out how to optimize it. So you guys can also go through that chapter and that exercise and figure out what's missing in your health right now to optimize it, to take it to that next level. So.

• 7:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, our bodies are like cars, you know, we gotta look at them more just objectively. It's like your car is going off, like anytime you're tired or anytime something's weird, think of that like an engine light. And then you're the mechanic though, so you gotta go fix that shit. Sometimes a doctor can help, you know, those are like the master mechanic, but for daily maintenance, it's on you, buddy. Like you gotta figure that, you gotta figure this shit out.

• 8:03Lewis Howes?

  You gotta go make sure you're putting gas in the engine, the right type of fuel.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  The oil change, you know, doing everything you need to, everything, yeah, all of it.

• 8:17Speaker 02

  And he was like, we should do this like 30 day squeaky clean. The thing that made me a really good drug addict also makes me really good at like taking on new habits. Cause I was like, okay, when do you want to start? And he's like, now. And I literally handed the Thin Mints to my friend Zach and I was like, cool, let's go. And we did. And that was the start of the very first 1230.

• 8:35Lewis Howes?

  And did you have it all figured out? Like, we're not going to have this, this and this, or it was kind of?

• 8:39Speaker 02

  It was really loosely based on the framework of a paleo diet, but when I went back, so I blogged about it on my like personal training blog back in 2009. And when I go back and read, it was super loosey goosey, right? Like, don't eat this, try to eat less sugar. Like, it wasn't anywhere near.

• 8:52Lewis Howes?

  There was some oils in there, there was that.

• 8:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, it wasn't super well-defined.

• 8:55Lewis Howes?

  But it still got great results, it sounds like.

• 8:57Speaker 02

  It did. It got, I got incredible results and like, but different results than what he, he, his was more mostly physical. Mine were mostly like helping me identify a really unhealthy emotional relationship with food and helping me change that in a really permanent and profound way.

• 9:12Lewis Howes?

  Cause I feel like when we have a structure, when we have guidelines, then we can be creative within those guidelines.

• 9:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:18Lewis Howes?

  In life and with food.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  I like that, yeah.

• 9:20Lewis Howes?

  You know, as an artist, sometimes when you're just like, okay, paint me a painting.

• 9:24Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 9:24Lewis Howes?

  It's hard to be creative.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 9:26Lewis Howes?

  But when you say, I want you to paint me a painting with red, black and green.

• 9:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 9:31Lewis Howes?

  And I want you to have like circular motions.

• 9:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:34Lewis Howes?

  Then you can be creative and artistic with the structure.

• 9:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:37Lewis Howes?

  And the context. And I think when I had the context and the structure of the whole 30, it made me be more creative of how I could make my food.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:46Lewis Howes?

  The things that I could order. Now, it limited me in some ways, but it gave me structure.

• 9:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:51Lewis Howes?

  And I think that structure creates discipline as well.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 9:54Lewis Howes?

  So.

• 9:54Speaker 02

  A lot of people find the rules of the program, which are very black and white, very on or off, freeing. Because as you said, it takes some of the decision fatigue out of their brain. It eliminates the need to like white knuckle willpower your way through every decision. We say no added sugar. So when you pick up a label and you read it, you don't have to think, is this two grams of sugar? Is that too much? Is it not enough? Is it better? Or is it worse? Like, it's just sugar? Nope, it's out. And a lot of people find that very freeing, especially in the beginning, because when you're trying to. Create a new habit or change a habit. It's like when I went to rehab, they stick you all in a box and you're isolated from the rest of the world because in the beginning you're really fragile. It's kind of similar.

• 10:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 10:35Speaker 02

  There's a lot of addiction and recovery like language built into the whole 30, which I didn't even realize until kind of after the fact.

• 10:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:51Shawn Stevenson?

  I started to ask the right question. You know, questions are so powerful. So I asked, what is my spine actually made of? And then dug into the research and I was shocked because when you think of your bones, what's the first mineral nutrient you think of?

• 11:04Lewis Howes?

  I think of calcium.

• 11:04Shawn Stevenson?

  Exactly.

• 11:05Lewis Howes?

  I'm ignorant though.

• 11:07Shawn Stevenson?

  No, this is where everybody lives, the majority of us. There's like 200 other factors that are equally as important. That's just the big marketing one.

• 11:15Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 11:16Shawn Stevenson?

  Right? And so there's things like magnesium, silica. I needed vitamin C to help to regenerate tissues. I didn't know that. Sulfur bearing amino acids, all these interesting things I'd never heard of. And no way was I getting that via Papa John's and Sunny Delight, you know? So I changed the way that I was eating and I was starting to get.

• 11:33Lewis Howes?

  Egg McMuffin wasn't bringing the nutrients, man?

• 11:34Shawn Stevenson?

  No, it was missing it, man. It was missing the mark. And so I started to look for the foods that had those things in them. And then there was a radical transformation in my health. So the last piece was sleep, rest and recovery, man. When I started to do all this good stuff for my body and training again. And again, I just started where I could. I started off on elliptical, then a stationary bike, walked, picked up the weights again. And I naturally fell into a normal sleep pattern. And six weeks later, man, after making that decision, I lost 28 pounds. The pain I'd been experiencing every day for two and a half years was gone. Ultimately, about nine months later, I got a scan done and I had two herniated discs that retracted on their own.

• 12:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:14Shawn Stevenson?

  I lost three fourths of an inch in height and I grew half an inch back. Which was crazy, right? And the degeneration was starting to essentially be reversed. And the last physician I worked with, he was just standing there looking at the picture. You know, the MRI is just like, wow, son, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. I haven't seen this before.

• 12:34Lewis Howes?

  You had no clue.

• 12:34Shawn Stevenson?

  Yeah. And so that's when I fired my doctor.

• 12:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:37Shawn Stevenson?

  But with love, with love. But yeah, I kind of got what I needed from that experience. And even when I went to get the scan done, I already knew I was well. It was just kind of an affirmation.

• 12:53Lewis Howes?

  Now, why do you think our self-worth is so tied to our body image?

• 12:56Speaker 04

  Well, I think that we have to address the fact that there is an innate sexuality that people who like Gisele, or supermodels, or Brady. You look at these like, fit football players and sexy models, and their body is appreciated. It is beautiful. And we can't knock them down for having that body, but we also have to embrace what is our natural figure as well. And I think what it is, is pretty animalistic, because men and women are attracted, like you're attracted from the outside first, and then the attraction stays from the inside, right?

• 13:39Speaker 04

  The outside is what gets you attracted, and the inside is what keeps you attracted. And it's unfortunate sometimes because people get really caught up in the way that they look. And what I try to coach my clients in is not having these goals that are so outside of reality, but to really celebrate the wins. Whether that is gaining two pounds of muscle and being stronger, and feeling more energized, or clearing a little bit of skin, or even just sticking to a plan for a little while that can build confidence around how we feel. Or maybe you've worked out and eaten clean for a couple of weeks, and you treat yourself to a new romper, or a dress, or a pair of heels. I mean, or you treat yourself to a massage, or a facial,

• 14:23Speaker 04

  or whatever it is that like, you're into. I think it's really important to celebrate your body, because so many of my clients will look at these people, like a Victoria's Secret model, or the Insta model in the bikinis, and the girls who follow them, and they want to be just like them, and they want that body. But the problem is if they don't have that body, then they don't feel confident. If they don't feel confident, they don't feel sexy. And then they don't give off that... Confidence and sex appeal and it's detrimental to themselves because a lot of guys think they're attractive and the same goes for guys if they don't put off that they feel confident and sexy then the girl is going to vibe off of whatever that aura is or that energy is that

• 15:06Speaker 04

  they're putting off and that has a lot to do with not being perfect but putting in the effort and like loving what you got and taking what you have to the next level whether that's taking yourself to the next emotional level by meditating taking yourself to the to the next like mental level by education and learning and like going to the school of greatness or whatever it is that you're doing to better yourself I think all of those things you do to better yourself can make you more confident in who you are and more comfortable in your skin and whether you're a size two or a size 12 gotta rock what you got.

• 15:45Lewis Howes?

  There you have it my friends I hope you enjoyed this wellness wisdom mashup from the masters. Again, "The first wealth is health," said Emerson, "and it's all about mastering your body, your emotions, and your health. And if you don't have that, something will always be holding you back in every other area of your life. Your relationships will be more strained, the way you think about yourself, your viewpoint on the world, your work, everything would be more strained if your health is strained." Now, I'm not saying all your problems will go away if you've got great health, those challenges will still be there, but they'll be less strained because you'll have that inner confidence and know that you're putting

• 16:27Lewis Howes?

  in the work to keep your healthy body and healthy mind. If you enjoyed this, make sure to leave a review over on iTunes or the podcast app right now. And again, every week we shout out the fan of the week. So I'd love to see some of your reviews and let me know what you think. The full show notes is at lewishouse.com/644. And again, leave a comment over on Instagram or Twitter, take a screenshot of this and let me know what you liked most about it and share with your friends. It's all about spreading the message of greatness. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we bring you the most inspiring individuals, insightful ideas, and tools to help you unlock your inner greatness. I'm so grateful that you come back here each and every week and share this message with your friends.

• 17:12Lewis Howes?

  If you have any questions, any reviews, any thoughts, feel free to connect with me on Instagram and let me know there by leaving a comment. As always, I love you very much, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.