DxT

Language Learning Skills, and Being Present (#63)

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Being present is always difficult, but modern times make it even more so. Our distraction oriented culture encourages us to respond to emails and texts ASAP, keep up to date with constantly breaking news, and to never be bored or satisfied.

There's a lot to unpack, and a lot to fix, but in an effort to keep things simple, our new challenge is going to be a combination of a daily picture, and a food journal. The picture will help us stay "in the moment" more often, and the food journal will help us with being mindful of the present. This will be a really interesting journey, hope you guys enjoy!

Show Notes:

Language Results:

Daniel killed it on this one. Andrew, not so much.

See the results journal over here!

Not a lot to see, but hey, there's some gauges.

Daniel killed it on this one. Andrew, not so much.

See the results journal over here!

Presence Challenge:

We're trying something a little new. Andrew's been trying to unify a lot of tools and life stuff into airtable as of late, so here's a (hopefully) embedded, live journal of what's going on.

There's two main components to this challenge. A food journal, and a daily picture.

These are both, at first blush, pretty simple. But both could have huge impacts on how present we are in the day to day life. Slowing down to take a picture of something interesting, and then having the chance to reflect on it will really help sharpen living in the moment.

The food journal will not only be a bit of it's own health journey, but meals are one of those "things" that we both could use some mindfulness on. Learning to be present and pay attention to how our bodies are responding to foods will be interesting for sure.

If you like the google sheets version better, Daniel will be taking over on the spreadsheet front there and maintaining the chart for those more into sheets.

Check it out here!

Andrew Hubberman:

YouTube

Incredible Psychologist. Here's one of his more popular videos.

Duolingo:

duolingo

Our favorite language learning app up until this point.


+Babbel

+Babbel

Not as great as Andrew expected.

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry


No more hurry.

Amazon

Daniel's inspiration for being more present.

Madefor

YouTube

Really cool program for self-improvement. Holler at Andrew if you have any questions. Looks like they're shutting down, so they've got the books and tools that go with the program at a major discount if you'd like to check it out.

Madefor Pt. 2

Andrew's Madefor in the backyward.

Madefor Store

Seriously, this isn't an affiliate link or anything. Andrew just really thinks this program was legit. If you've been wanting to make a change in your life, this is a pretty dang good starting place.

See above for an excerpt of the "Fuel" challenge that mirrors what we're doing this month.


Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Daniel: Hi guys, and welcome to the dead bytomorrow podcast. My name is Daniel winter and my co-host is Andrew Monroe ineach episode, Andrew and I will explore topics that you should think aboutbefore you die. We encourage you to remember that some tomorrow will be yourlast, so each day could be your final chance to really.

[00:00:19] Andrew: For those of you who keep up on thepodcast as a regular standard, like, you know, every new episode you're on it.I hope this is a happy surprise for you. We've got our. Standard challengeinterview, uh, interview is not the right word. Sorry, Daniel. This is not aninterview. This is a conversation. Our standard challenge, conversation we'vebeen doing this year right after the last episode.

[00:00:44] Andrew: So you should be getting a doublewhammy within like less than a week of each other. So congratulations foreverybody else who was like, what is Andrew going on about? ignore all of that.Welcome back to the show. We're really happy you're here. And Daniel, I'm gladto have you back on. I missed you at the interview with Larry, but here we are.

[00:01:01] Andrew: At the end of our challenge onlanguage learning and ready to jump into the next challenge. so you can't me.The, I fell this challenge.

[00:01:19] Daniel: ESP Ola and, uh, did by tomorrow, mireDaniel it's Mimi, Andrew, Andrew.

[00:01:31] Andrew: Hispanic accent. I, I just wanted tosay, I really liked your Hispanic accent. You were going whenever you'respeaking Spanish there. my Spanish is a little rusty, ESP

[00:01:51] Daniel: Mm. Perque Perque

[00:01:55] Andrew: let's get into this. So I logged twothat like one plus one, two. Practice sessions of Spanish, and that was it forJuly, slash you know, the first week of August and it is shameful and I'membarrassed. And I am sorry for, to you and to everybody who might have caredabout seeing some success in this challenge for me, I was pretty excited aboutit at the beginning when we recorded the last episode and I fell for theclassic blunder.

[00:02:29] Andrew: If I did not schedule when I was gonnabe doing my Spanish, I didn't say, Hey, this is. You know, you're doing thisevery morning. You're gonna do this at lunch. You're gonna do this at afterdinner right before bed. Like I usually do when I'm from trying something, Ikept not planning this, that momentum just kept going and going. That theinertia is probably a better word of not doing it. And I let just abouteverything else. And it [00:03:00] was, it was.Exciting month. There's a lot going on. So I had that to fall back on to tryingto take away from my guilt, but in the end I didn't make time.

[00:03:11] Andrew: And I just completely screwed up andtouched my app twice and barely got past the, uh, it might have been like threeor four times, honestly. I think two of them barely count. Uh, didn't getanything done. Barely got through like the, Hey, where are you at? In Spanish?I was like, I've got C and I've got Ola and I have B and you know, things likethat.

[00:03:37] Andrew: I've got no, because that one's aneasy one. it's the same. So, yeah. Um, if there was a shame parade, this is,this is the moment that I need to go walking through the streets with a ladychasing me with a bell.

[00:03:53] Daniel: This is more true. Stay

[00:03:56] Andrew: How did go for, obviously you're Cyour words. I.

[00:04:06] Daniel: I was, I was trying to decide if Icould just make my way through saying Spanish phrases throughout and kind ofpunting the ball back your way, but I I'm not quite to that level of proficiency.Um, I, I would say, I would say the month. Fairly well, I had one day that Ididn't log at least one duo lingo practice session.

[00:04:33] Daniel: Uh, duo lingo, like we talked about atthe beginning is something I've I've been doing fairly regularly and have beenbuilding up a fair amount of vocab words. And so it's challenging to. Thinkabout a response in Spanish and, and reply to things like I had a couple thingsthat I, I could have said back at you, but it wouldn't have been a verycohesive conversation.

[00:05:01] Daniel: Um, so that's, that's a challenge. Ifeel like I'm getting better at being able to hear things and comprehend, butactual conversation is, is challenging. It reminds me a little bit of mydaughter who is almost two. She can understand quite a bit of things that we'resaying to her, but she has her like one or two word response things where shecan just say those things and it gets us to do things.

[00:05:30] Daniel: So I like, I could probably. Be like achild amongst a Spanish family and get myself fed and find the bathroom andsome of those types of things, but that's about the extent of it. So yeah. Dodoo lingo is, has gone well, I'm, I'm a fan of it. Um, oddly enough, theyactually just pushed what seems like a pretty major update to their app thismorning.

[00:05:53] Daniel: I was logging in and doing a littlebit of Spanish before this, um, also watching [00:06:00]Dora. So just really going hard. On the language immersion. Right. Um, but doo

[00:06:05] Daniel: lingo

[00:06:05] Andrew: great. Honestly, that's a great move.

[00:06:07] Daniel: yeah. Riley loves it. Dora and, andBlippy are her two shows. Um, so doo lingo, it's, it's a free app. It's likeall free apps and that they constantly spam you trying to do their premiumversion.

[00:06:23] Daniel: Um, but they have different units andlessons and things like that. And. As you go through it, um, it kind of startsmore entry level and gets a little more advanced. And as you go and you can doa lesson like the, the very first one is about the basics, like basicssentences, you know how to say hello and some of those types of things.

[00:06:47] Daniel: And. When you complete a lesson, itgives you progress towards sort of mastering the, the words and, and theconcepts within that lesson. And so you can, if you want, you can just kind ofdo the lesson and then go to the next lesson. Or you can repeat that lesson upto, I think it's. I don't know how many times it's, it's quite a few times.

[00:07:11] Daniel: And then at that point you get a, youkind of gold star it, and then you've, you've basically mastered that and youcan kind of move on and then each day that you log in as well, it will, it willshow you, um, lessons that, you know, it goes from being golden and all niceand complete to looking broken. And that says, Hey, it's, it's probably timefor you to do a little refresher and just make sure that these words are still.

[00:07:35] Daniel: Fresh for you. So that was kind of, myapproach was I would, I would, each day I would try to go through and fix mybroken lessons, do my refreshers. And those are what I'll call freebies,because again, it's a free app, but it gives you a. Hearts, which is how manymistakes you can make before. It's like, okay, you're done with your Spanishtoday, unless you're gonna pay us more money.

[00:07:59] Daniel: Um, but you can always go dorefreshers doesn't require any hearts. It's doing the new lessons that you, youkind of have to do. Well, if you wanna keep doing lessons, I'll do myrefreshers. And then I would try to do, um, whatever the furthest or longlesson was that I was trying to master. And then if I.

[00:08:17] Daniel: Really did well, then I would go andkinda look at the furthest thing along the path that was just like totallybrand new and would do like a first new lesson. So on really good days, I mighthit four lessons in a day on days where it's like, okay, I just, I'm trying toat least, you know, grease the groove here.

[00:08:38] Daniel: I would at least hit my refresherlesson for the day.

[00:08:42] Andrew: Greasing the groove. I , I love that.That is a concept that everybody should be thinking about all the time. Likeyou always wanna be greasing that groove if you're working on something, um,I'm glad you said that that's a great concept that I usually think about whenI'm working out or something like that, but it really applies to Spanish.[00:09:00]

[00:09:00] Andrew: So I wanna throw my 2 cents in aswell, because it, you killed it on do lingo and. It's great. I'm not gonna makeexcuses again on why I fell apart, but I wanted to try something else. We'veused doo lingo in the past and really liked it. But I was like, Hey, there'sthis babble plus thing I'd used it briefly like six or seven months ago when itfirst come out.

[00:09:18] Andrew: And it was great. And, and maybe it'sstill a great app. I don't know. But that was one of my, the run-ins is when Ijumped into it. Finally, um, the paywall is severe, so I I'm gonna say likeexpensive, severe, which I do think it kind of is that I think it's like $200 ayear something or $150 a year for the premium subscription.

[00:09:40] Andrew: Okay. Well, like on do lingo, you canget really far without the premium subscription on babble. I could do like fiveminutes a day. And that was it. That was, that was all that let me do. I waslike, all right, you did your two lessons for the day. Um, we've decided, youknow, Ola, uh, we'll see you tomorrow.

[00:09:59] Andrew: unless you wanna buy the premium. AndI was like, wait, uh, help. I need, I need more. And, uh, it didn't work. Andthen, so I was gonna try and swap back to do a lingo and again, I fell apart,but, um, I was really excited about Babel plus, and maybe I just kind of DEDout on it, but from what I could see, it was.

[00:10:18] Andrew: Basically nonfunctional in what youneeded to do if you didn't pay for the premium subscription. And the premium isdefinitely a premium price. So kind of disappointing. I was really excitedabout it.

[00:10:31] Daniel: Gotcha.

[00:10:31] Andrew: Did you happen to, I was gonna say,did you happen to find any other tools out there that helped like, you know,watching Dora, uh, is I think super clever, uh, Tim Ferris was really big intoreading, like some of your favorite books going and finding like.

[00:10:47] Andrew: Maybe easier to read books, littlerings might not be the best option, but some of the easier books that youreally, really enjoyed, like the little prints or something like that inSpanish, and then practicing, translating the book as you're reading it. Um,obviously I don't think you did that. Was there anything else besides do lingothat you were like, Hey, this, this was a really good adder to greasing thatgroove or something that maybe you didn't have time for that you think would'vereally helped.

[00:11:16] Daniel: Yeah, doo lingo was definitely themain tool. Dora. They actually speak a surprisingly little amount of Spanishand Dora, but my daughter and I have watched Dora many, many mornings. Um, andthen. Something, I didn't do a ton of this month. I've done in the past is I dohave on my Bible app, I have a Spanish version of the Bible downloaded.

[00:11:41] Daniel: So there have been times that I'vegone and read some of the, some of the scripture. I know. Most well, and kindof tried to stumble through and read some of that in Spanish. That's definitelyinteresting. So I haven't, I haven't tried to read any other books, but that isone, um, we did sing one of our, our worship [00:12:00]songs in Spanish at church during the month.

[00:12:01] Daniel: So I'll count that one as well. Um,

[00:12:05] Daniel: and

[00:12:05] Andrew: like favorite songs would be a greatmove. Like, Hey, here's your favorite song in Spanish. That's awesome. Causethat's, that's catchy. You're getting that pneumonic, whatever you wanna callit, that music that gets stuck in your head. So just throwing there. That'sawesome. I've thought of that.

[00:12:19] Daniel: music is hard. I will say cuz everynow and then if I get in the car, especially if I like get in after, you know,a rental or, or somebody's driven the car who is a Spanish speaker and they'relistening to Spanish radio. I, I usually don't turn in immediately off. I willlisten for a little. And I don't know about you, actually.

[00:12:39] Daniel: I, I feel like this is true of you,but lyrics are hard enough for English songs. Like how many lyrics to songs. Doyou actually know and pick up and hear, um, so that's what I'll say aboutSpanish music. There, there are definitely little words I can pick up where I'mlike, oh, he's talking about his heart.

[00:12:59] Daniel: Oh, he's saying like, I am somethingabout you. Uh, you know, it's, that's, what's a little bit hard with, withmusic, the, the talk portions, um, It, it is a little bit easier to somewhatfollow on that. Um, and then, you know, when out in different places, if therewas a, a sign or something like that, or a menu where it has English andSpanish, I would typically always kinda look at the Spanish side, challengemyself and say, Hey, can I figure out what's being said here?

[00:13:31] Daniel: And then like, look back at theEnglish side and be like, oh yeah, I was, I was close and oh, okay. Like that'swhat that one word was that I couldn't figure out.

[00:13:38] Andrew: Well, and that's exactly the point ofthese kind of challenges is, you know, we're wanting to push ourselves in thisfront again. I'm I'm not gonna stop beating myself up on this, especially atleast during this episode, I'm really disappointed in when I did this July, butthat's kind of the goals. It's not just like, Hey, build out these 15 minutesevery day. Practice Spanish. It's also look for the opportunities where you cando the little, little, little stuff. We've talked about this in the book. We'vetalked about this in the podcast before find the little moments that you canjust keep adding these. Just add to that pile of, Hey, practice Spanish. Isthere something in Spanish?

[00:14:16] Andrew: Is there a sign? Can you read thatsign first and then see if you got it right on the English translation. Um,looking for those little tiny opportunities to. Incrementally grow. It'sexactly what the goal is here. See what you can do for 30 days. So that'sgreat. I also, talked to one of our guys in a weird coincidence yesterday.

[00:14:34] Andrew: We had a bunch of the field techs notscheduled to be in the field because they were supposed to build a house atJoseph's house or build a shed that sounds better build a shed at Joseph'shouse and he ended up not gonna mess with it. So. They got stuck with me andme, uh, preaching at them about things I cared about.

[00:14:53] Andrew: And I was talking to one of the guysand he was like, yeah, by the way, I'm gonna have to change up the schedule. Ihave to take Spanish this semester [00:15:00]and they're like, it's not online. I have to go to class and it's at thiscertain time. And like, if I don't take it this semester, it pushes mygraduation out like a whole year.

[00:15:10] Andrew: And I don't want that. No, man, I get it.It's totally fine. And he was like, yeah, it's silly. Like I'm already reallygood at Spanish because he, uh, actually listens to audio books and podcasts.Um, he's got like one specific one that is basically this learning Spanishstory driven thing. And I'll have to try and figure out what it was from him,but basically he listens to this story in Spanish and then it like goes backand talks about it in English and.

[00:15:38] Andrew: It was just kind of a cool concept,another tool to put in a belt. If you're trying to learn a language, uh, findthat was kind of audio driven devices that aren't necessary do lingo, but whereyou're just listening and absorbing. And I think it helps what you talked aboutat the beginning there. Um, Understanding the language is really important atfirst.

[00:15:57] Andrew: Um, actually generating your phraseis.

[00:16:10] Daniel: Yeah, absolutely. So I think, I thinkour, our summary of takeaway on Spanish is. B plus maybe not the best option ifyou're trying to, you know, do some entry level, definitely stick with duolingo. There's a lot that you can do without having to pay anything. And evenif you do wanna do their, their premium, I, I don't know how much it is, but I,I don't think it's very expensive.

[00:16:35] Daniel: They also will throw some trials atyou your way, so you can try that out. So doling goes a great option and thenjust. Finding the little ways to try to make it more a part of your day to dayroutine. I think really make a big difference is what we, we learned fromSpanish.

[00:16:54] Andrew: Yeah. Well, and, and man, we're inTexas, it's easy to, to practice in a day to day situation. , you're, you'renot getting out much if you're not finding those opportunities, but yeah, itwas good. I'm sorry, again, to everyone, including Daniel that I failed youguys. I I'm going to do better on this next challenge.

[00:17:15] Andrew: So presence we're gonna be doing,being present. August, I guess we can call it. We don't exactly match up themonth. We're like slowly adding like an extra day or so per month. Um, at somepoint maybe by December will like be like half in December, half in January,something, but we're being present. So this was kind your idea.

[00:17:40] Andrew: You wanna drop the, the knowledge onkinda how this is gonna work for us.

[00:17:45] Daniel: Yeah, I, so I, the idea that I, I sentyour way and I I'm gonna say that you rebranded it as present. So you might,you may have to explain, um, some of the thought process behind that, butbasically what we're gonna do is [00:18:00]first of all, we're gonna do a food journal. Um, I've never done a food journalbefore, so I'm actually kind of interested to see.

[00:18:10] Daniel: When I look back at, you know, a weekand, and especially full month, just to kind of see, all right, like what, whatwere some of my trends in terms of things that I ate most often, I'm gonna tryto keep track of roughly time of day too. Cuz I would be interested to seelike, am I habitually eating something that is not great after this time atnight?

[00:18:33] Daniel: Or if I do. Do I tend to not feel asgreat. So some of those types of things, and that's something I've talked to afew people about, um, food and a lot of the conversation comes up around. WhenI say that, you know, I don't like canes as much as I used to, or evenyesterday, Hillary got some Wendy's for me for lunch, cuz we were just kind ofall over the place and I used to eat.

[00:18:58] Daniel: Wendy's probably. Four to five times aweek in college, no lie, like legitimately, at least that much. And I hit ityesterday. I just felt blah, all day . I was like, I just fast. Food's not, notmy thing anymore. And I think that it probably never necessarily was, but Ijust probably didn't pay a lot of attention to what, like how I felt andattributing that to food.

[00:19:26] Daniel: So I'm excited to do a food foodjournal for. um, and I've got a little bit more self-discipline and a littlebit more respect for my body now. So if I notice that there there's somethingthat is really messing with me, I think it'll be a good chance to cut that out.And then the other piece of it, um, that we're gonna do, that's just, I thinkit'll be a little bit more fun, cuz even though I'm interested in food journal,I don't think it'll be all that fun.

[00:19:51] Daniel: Um, Taking a, a picture each day and,and maybe typing up a quick little note about that. So picture journal foodjournal, it'll be interesting to be able to kind of look back at the month andsee what did I eat? You know, what were things that I was doing this month thatseemed picture worthy.

[00:20:15] Andrew: So before I jump into the presentstuff, I wanna talk about what you're you were saying there. So the foodjournal thing, I, man, I think about this too much, especially for how poorly Ieat. So I've got three things for you. Three topics I'm gonna try and fire onyou first. I don't think we talked about this very much, but most of July whileI was again, failing.

[00:20:39] Andrew: It's a failure because I didn'tattempt, it's not a failure because I wasn't successful at learning Spanish.It's a, failure's

[00:20:49] Andrew: a continuous glucose for most of July.I, if that

[00:20:57] Daniel: I a little bit, cuz cuz you [00:21:00] talked about how much alcohol messed withyou.

[00:21:02] Andrew: mm-hmm so it was really cool. I didn'tthink it'd be something that would necessarily come up on the podcast because,you know, we were doing Spanish and we didn't really have the, uh, seventhchallenge, this food one until last night at, you know, what is today? Thesixth. So the night of the fifth. We were like, Hey, we should do thischallenge.

[00:21:23] Andrew: And, uh, not had the glucose water forabout two weeks now. Almost. It was like right at the end of July. So that wasreally kind of made me more mindful of what I was eating. Unfortunately, I dida lot of travel while I was wearing this monitor and travel to me. Uh, almostalways is specifically, at least enjoying travel specifically, really, to me.

[00:21:48] Andrew: So I, I missed the boat on some ofthis stuff, but just seeing how different foods and especially something likecanes or. My weakness is ice cream, which I know you're not into which it'sstill upsetting to me, but the ice cream and canes or alcohol. And the way someof these things interacted with my body was just wild.

[00:22:08] Andrew: Um, or some of the stuff that I expectthat would be like, Really kind of bad for me, didn't have huge effects. Like,uh, street tacos, street tacos were pretty chill on the glucose monitor. Atleast not a huge reaction, um, protein shakes or like just chicken, zeroreaction. Like I said, eat actual protein and you know, not a lot of otherstuff, that'd be pretty good.

[00:22:31] Andrew: Uh, sticky rice or non, like with somefood through the roof, it was worse than ice cream. In some, some instances.The alcohol, uh, we talked about it, but just in case, anybody's curious aboutfood stuff as well. Um, the alcohol itself didn't blunt it, uh, or didn't spikethe glucose because I, I, I don't really drink, like really sugary drink, somedrink it's like wine, or maybe, you know, like just whiskey or whatever.

[00:22:59] Andrew: Um, but the next day, the, my averagegroup glucose level. Be elevated for like almost 24 hours. So let's say I had adrink or two Thursday night, but I ate healthy. Okay. Nothing terrible happenedThursday, little bit of a raise. My, you know, after the drinks, I'd be alittle raised and steady there, but the next day I'd have this kind of elevatedbaseline.

[00:23:24] Andrew: And whenever I had something thatmight not have spiked as much the day before now, they had the alcohol thenight before. It would cause this just weirdly aggressive spike in my glucoseresponse was to some of these foods that might not have been as aggressive if Ihadn't drank. So that was pretty interesting.

[00:23:42] Andrew: Um, I'm not necessarily recommending thisfor the challenge. Um, it kind of would go hand in hand maybe, but it's prettyexpensive. And so it's hard to recommend it. And kind of makes sense. Sothere's that, um, second part of this and another coincidence, uh, I did that [00:24:00] made for, do you remember me talkingabout, made for, uh, maybe a year.

[00:24:04] Daniel: I don't remember made for.

[00:24:06] Andrew: Okay. So it was this program. Uh, I'vebeen meaning to do like a really long blog post series on it. And what'sinteresting, I guess they didn't make it like they're shutting down their shopas of like two weeks ago, but it was this kind of expensive as well. I reallyhave a thing with spending too much money on weird stuff, but, uh, there's thisguy named Andrew Hubbard.

[00:24:27] Andrew: I think he pops up all over. Youshould know who I'm talking about, you're doing your brain stuff. Um, Andrew isone of the guys that is involved in that study that you're doing on the brainstudy that you've been doing for this last year. Um, if I, if I remember, I'mpretty sure he is on the board that is helping run that brain study you'redoing.

[00:24:48] Andrew: So he is, he's like the pop culturebrain psychology guy running around right now. Pretty young. I think he's inhis like early forties, but everybody uses them. If they need a cutting edge,semi celebrity scientist guy to come help build a program or work with them oradvise them on things to psychology.

[00:25:12] Andrew: He is pretty, uh, ubiquitous ininteresting psychology stuff. So that might be butchering his last name, butwe'll have him in the show notes now. He paired with the guy who founded Tom's,uh, whose name I've also forgotten. And the two of them created this, uh,program called made form. Basically the guy that founded Tom's made all thismoney and he got depressed and he was out surfing at a retreat or something andmet this other guy.

[00:25:42] Andrew: And then they grabbed hub to come helphim. And the three of them made this program that is supposed to be basically a.A brain grease the groove kind of thing, where you follow all these differentsteps. And at the end of this, like 12 months, you're supposed to have a, uh,dialed in like habit. Like it's this stacked habit system where you have a lotof all, these really good habits are all stacked together and it's supposed tomake you a better person.

[00:26:09] Andrew: And I, I completely agree with it. I'musing you. Gray language here, but I, I think what they did was a really goodproduct. I think it was a really good system so much so that when I saw theywere going out of, uh, sale or out of business or closing the shop down, I wentahead and bought all of the, uh, books they had.

[00:26:26] Andrew: Um, and they're like sitting in my carright now in the box. They came in like two or three days ago because I waslike, I don't want to lose all of this cool research they had, because at thebeginning of each month, they'd give you this little book and say like, Hey,here's your challenge, read this stuff.

[00:26:39] Andrew: And it's kind of. I base some of whatwe've been doing on these challenges we've been doing was a year and a half agowhen I did this, I really enjoyed that monthly habit kind of building. So allof that verbal vomit, uh, equals one of the things I did was a food journal.One of the months was food tracking.

[00:26:59] Andrew: And [00:27:00]so I did similar to this during that time and try to do food track and, and ofall the challenges they had. That was one of the ones that was hardest for me.Cause I really just struggled. Actually writing it down and, and I'm gonna tryand be better this month on it. So I need accountability here, but one of thethings I'd have trouble with is I was okay with like, oh, I had a proteinshake.

[00:27:20] Andrew: I'd write, that'd write it wheniwhenever I went and that pizza or got ice cream and, you know, kind did thingsthat in my mind, I was like, well, I shouldn't have done that. It was a lotharder for me to, uh, write it down and keep track of it and really focus onit. And it wasn't even like, I was intentionally like, Ooh, I'm embarrassedthat I went and ate healthy.

[00:27:44] Andrew: I would just, it wasn't a part of theplan of what I was doing. And so I wouldn't actually like put two and twotogether, be like, Hey, you ate something you need to write down. In my mind, Iwas keeping a food journal and eating healthy. And whenever I didn't eathealthy, it was a separate instance of what I was working on.

[00:28:01] Andrew: So my brain just wouldn't even like,think about like, Hey, you need to write this down. Your food journal, go haveice cream. And the next day I'm like, I've gonna write down my protein shakethis morning for the food journal I keep going. So I'm pretty excited. I'mgonna bust out that book and I'll probably put some links on it or somethingrelated to it.

[00:28:16] Andrew: Send you some pictures cause they hadsome really good science and then I'll try and incorporate at least whenever wefinish this C up. And if we from for so pretty excited there, my final thirdthing that I'm trying to wrap to fire you, and I'm not doing a very good job onthere's this guy who. Got me excited about this kind of stuff and why I'm soexcited for this challenge.

[00:28:39] Andrew: And he was on Tim Ferris, who has comeup twice today. And I really like Tim Ferris. so, the chasing Bobby Fisher guy,whose name I've forgotten, he did this, this thing where he went. And starteddoing a food journal. He was just like, Hey, does this food make me hap like,do I feel good? It's like the Wendy's thing you were talking about. Hey, I atea Wendy's hamburger.

[00:29:00] Andrew: Do I feel good? Do I feel bad? Um, doI feel neutral? And so he just uses really simple system and he'd put, youknow, food down. yes, no, maybe. And. As he progressed through this very simplefood journal and everything he ate. Um, he started eliminating anything that ifafterwards he's like, Hey, I didn't feel great after that.

[00:29:20] Andrew: And started eliminating it. He endedup on this diet of like in his case. And I'm not sure if this applies to allhumans. I know I wasn't there. So. Grain salt with this, it's hard to believe,but he ended up on this diet supposedly of basically like a couple pounds ofapples a day and some leafy greens and stuff like that.

[00:29:41] Andrew: It was a really simplistic diet. Ithink he had some fish every once in a while, but basically it was like anapple themed with. Little bits of protein and little bits of like fruits andveggies on the side that weren't apples. So he's doing this and he's offstudying abroad in the UK, I think. And he comes back to the us and he goes tothe gym with, I think [00:30:00] his brotherand, you know, he worked out.

[00:30:02] Andrew: He, uh, he's also some kind of karatechampion. I can't remember which martial art it is, but he's like a legitimate.Fitness enthusiast along with being a, you know, grand master in chess. And he,the dude's just phenomenal. I think he's Warren Buffet's, uh, life coachactually is one of his resume features in modern times currently.

[00:30:25] Andrew: So guys just. Amazing person fromeverything that he says, but he goes to the gym and he, you know, used to workout and he was just like all of us and just, you know, move some weight. Didthat kinda thing. Bon comes back after not working out for a year and eatingall these apples. He's like maxing the stacks, uh, on the gym equipment withoutany additional training.

[00:30:47] Andrew: And this it's hard to believe. I dunnohow accurate it's, but that was one of his big arguments in this whole littlepodcast he did. Was he. Data food journal. I had these huge drastic effects onhis physical wellbeing beyond just feeling better about the food. He, you know,mental acuity, physical strength, all kinds of stuff is like this drug.

[00:31:09] Andrew: And I don't know what ended uphappening. I ifs of apples, um, could just been a fun little, uh, anecdote, butvery interesting. So take all three of those together. The glucose monitor. Uh,my failed attempt at the made four challenge. I was really into a year and ahalf ago and the Tim Ferris thing. And I'm, I'm pumped about this now that I'mmonopolizing the microphone anyways, the presence thing.

[00:31:37] Andrew: So one of the problems I had with Julywas I was constantly running, just going and going and going and going. AndI've had a couple moments where I'm like, man, I am, I am not being present. Iam not. Paying attention to what I'm doing. I'm eating food to eat food. AndI'm thinking about the next food I wanna eat.

[00:31:55] Andrew: I'm thinking about the next activity.I wanna chase, um, that kind of stuff. So when Daniel hit me up last night andsaid, Hey, I wanna do this kind of thing. Um, I was like, yes, let's, let's dothe food journal, but let's do the pictures because we can take it and focus onbeing present, finding, you know, something beautiful in a moment, taking apicture of it, being present with our food and actually paying attention to it.

[00:32:19] Andrew: Not just eating because you're hungryor because you think you need to eat some food. Um, they've been big problemsfor me, especially this summer. And so I'm very excited to kind of shift thisinto a. Being mindful and present with the situations in, in, and so hopefullyI'll be able to take these pictures and say, Hey, here's a picture of, youknow, this pretty flower that I saw when I was out running or here's a pictureof Jasper.

[00:32:45] Andrew: There's probably gonna be a lot ofpictures of Jasper and him, you know, enjoying the moment with me, cuz Jasper'sreally good at being present as most dogs. Um, and you know, stuff like that,I'm really, I think it'll, they go hand in hand. It's kind of weird to [00:33:00] think about like presence and picturesthroughout day.

[00:33:02] Andrew: And I thinking the two of is reallyinteresting and really important anding back that, that rush and mindset culturethat we kind of have. Population here. And going back to what I think isimportant, which is really living in the moment and. Appreciating, uh, what'sin front of you and not looking ahead to the next meal or the dessert orgetting to your next thing.

[00:33:32] Andrew: You know, I very rarely get to enjoymy meals cause I'm like, I gotta eat real fast. So I go to the next thing or,you know, I've been rushing all day and it just kind of, you follow thatinertia that we talked about, you know, if you're rushing and you're trying tomove fast and trying to, you know, be busy, then when those moments come up,that you shouldn't be. You don't, it's hard to dial back, you know, hit thebreaks and actually like breathe this dinner. That's tough. So very excited forthank letting pedestal for.

[00:34:07] Daniel: gladly. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm excited aswell. Um, Excited for both aspects and a book that I just finished reading wascalled the ruthless elimination of hurry. Um, so there, there are definitelythings that I'm kind of taking away that help me to have a desire to, to bemore present, to be more in the moment to, you know, enjoy sitting and kind ofbeing still

[00:34:37] Daniel: That's a struggle of mine. And, and I.A lot of it is just sort of being conditioned that if you're doing that, you'rewasting time, you're being lazy, whatever it is, but then understanding thatthere's actually restful, that exists in the, the stillness, the quietness,the, some of that simplicity's really good.

[00:34:57] Daniel: So it's, it's a great book. It's, it'sa, uh, it's very, um, I guess sort of theological it's it's written from apastor. So it's very much takes from Bible concepts, but. I really think thatregardless of what your faith background is, there's a lot of wisdom in tryingto avoid the hurry culture that we live in, in America.

[00:35:23] Andrew: Mm-hmm that's we gotta be better thanour surroundings. So this will be a good practice for, for both of us, I think.Cause we, we have the same kind of mindsets on this. We we're both kind ofachievement oriented people and sometimes that that's a good thing. I thinkit's good. Chase that kind of stuff.

[00:35:47] Andrew: But sometimes we do it at the expenseof moments that shouldn't be oriented that way. Uh, and it's not necessarily,you don't need to be always trying to, you know, go, go, go. It's you've youreally gotta have [00:36:00] those spaces.Those breaks that, that stop in the momentum to kind of reset and appreciatewhere you came from and where you're going and, you know, orient, all thatkinda stuff.

[00:36:13] Andrew: It'll be really good. Um, for all youguys listening, we'll have, you know, links in the show notes to keep trackwith it. Uh, anything you want ask us, feel free to reach out, and we're reallyexcited about this. So until the next episode, we look forward to connectingwith you.