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March 21, 2024
Guacamole for Your Brain, Why Everyone's Doing Planks, The Cure for a Nervous Dog, Spontaneous Vacations
Ever wondered why someone with a wallet thicker than a novel might sneak an extra item at the self-checkout? In a fascinating chat with therapist and lawyer Terrence Shulman, we tackle the psychological puzzle of affluent individuals giving in to the five-finger discount for the sheer thrill or in pursuit of an 'employee discount' after scanning their groceries. But the intrigue doesn't end at the checkout line. We cozy up with Pepperdine Business School's finest to unwrap the blanket of nostalgia that envelops us when we re-consume our favorite media and revisit treasured haunts, examining how these repeat indulgences chart our personal evolution.
Switch gears with us as we slice into the brain-boosting powers of avocados, guided by the latest research singing praises to this buttery fruit for its role in sharpening our cognitive functions. And if you're feeling bogged down by routine, discover why a spontaneous getaway may be the mental refresh you need, offering resilience while trimming the fat from travel stress. Of course, our health compass doesn't just point us toward the unpredictable; we'll also look at the rhythm of regular meal times and their deeper impact on more than our waistlines, from sleep patterns to sugar cravings. Tune in for a rich tapestry of discussions that weave together the unexpected links between our psychological quirks and the quest for a wholesome, fulfilling life.
Visit https://tesh.com for more information and resources
(00:02) Psychological Behaviors and Healthy Lifestyle
(11:09) Optimizing Brain Power and Spontaneous Travel
Transcript
00:02 - Speaker 1
Welcome to the podcast. I'm John Tesh with Gib Gerard. Lots of fun stuff happening in our world right now. The new Tesh.com is live and our new John Tesh piano method has launched. You can find that on the Tesh.com homepage as well. But let's get started here and now with a question who's shoplifting from the self checkout? It's rich people. Nearly one in five people give with an income of $100,000 or more. Admit it to intentionally stealing something while they were at the self checkout Three times more theft than the average person using self checkout. Why? Charance Schulman is a therapist and a lawyer at the Schulman Center and he says of course some people shoplift because they have a need, but wealthy people steal for other psychological reasons. Some do it because they have a thrill, seeking compulsion. Some people with a higher income may also steal because they feel like they deserve something for free, for the inconvenience of having to do what they consider a menial task. This is you.
00:58 - Speaker 2
You're not stealing, but this is you. I want to be very clear. I am not stealing from the self checkout, no, but you want something, but I do feel like I am being. I am an employee at the self checkout line and therefore I'm deserving of-.
01:12 - Speaker 1
A raise.
01:14 - Speaker 2
Or at least the employee discount. Just some ring dings. I just want the employee discount Just give it to me for 40% off or whatever the employee discount is I deserve that.
01:22
So it's that licensing effect. And again, you're talking about people that don't need it for the to be able to eat, they don't need to steal the food. It's not like Aladdin, but it is a licensing thing where it's. Hey, you're making me do the work. I should get something out of this. I absolutely understand the psychology. I don't steal, I don't steal, I don't do that, but I do understand the psychology.
01:46 - Speaker 1
Listen. If you steal, if you walk out of there, if you're listening to us at that self checkout, they will stop you. They will they arrest people to do it.
01:53 - Speaker 2
Yes, who do this? If you get caught, it's not a good thing, yeah, and they just say you need the employee discount.
01:58 - Speaker 1
Yeah, all right. Many people like me love rewatching movies, rereading books, even going on the same vacations again and again. This is so me it's both of us. Yeah, yeah, you're right, and Connie is the other way, mom's the other way. She's like I don't want to go back to that place.
02:14 - Speaker 2
I've already seen this. I've gone there with fish, exactly.
02:17 - Speaker 1
Anyway, while nostalgia sorry, while this, I got to get through this While nostalgia is a big part of it, there's another reason. It's called volitional re-consumption, which you'll never remember. But let me explain it. Yeah, according to the business school of Pepperdine, the rewatching experience allows people to appreciate how much they've grown. How does this work? When you make a deep connection to a show, a book or a vacation spot, you probably have a moment where you think wow, when I first watched this, I was 20 and now I'm 40. I have kids. I remember coming to this place when I was in high school and now I'm here with my spouse. It allows you to appreciate how far you've come.
02:50 - Speaker 2
Yeah, so I love rewatching the shows and movies that I watch as a kid.
02:55 - Speaker 1
Look at how popular friends in slime fell all right now.
02:59 - Speaker 2
They're comforting. They make you relive the time of your life that you watched them. So I absolutely get that. I also like going back to the same vacation spot because I know what to expect, and it's almost the memory of it like this is talking about is just as exciting as the experience that I'm going to get to have. I feel settled. Nothing feels that out of the ordinary. This is why people have vacation homes because they like to go to one place over and over and over again.
03:23 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I get it. Yeah, I absolutely do, and you know I'm going to go watch Gladiator.
03:29 - Speaker 2
For the 900th time. Look at how far you've come. You watched it last week and you're watching it again this week.
03:34 - Speaker 1
That's very funny. Yeah, let's see if we can't find a little more willpower to help us stick to a healthy eating plan. All you have to do, apparently, according to the Journal of Marketing Research, is just turn up the lights more often Now. They studied hundreds of restaurant customers and the result those eating in brightly lit rooms were up to 25% more likely to order healthy meals like vegetables, salads and grilled fish. They also ate 40% fewer calories compared to those who ate in a dark, romantically lit restaurant. It turns out that bright lighting makes our brain more aware of what we're doing, which increases the odds of making healthier food choices. Plus, it's the spotlight effect. Being in a brightly lit setting makes people think that they're being looked at more closely, so we tend to eat better, in case anybody is looking and judging us. I've got some pretty powerful TV lights. I think that's what it would take for me to stop eating.
04:25 - Speaker 2
Put those in the kitchen, put those in the pantry next to the Milano cookies.
04:28 - Speaker 1
I can't live without.
04:29 - Speaker 2
Milano, put those next to the Milano cookies, and the next time you're in there, you're going to be less likely to eat them.
04:34 - Speaker 1
It will take more than that.
04:35 - Speaker 2
But this makes sense. Look, it's that thing you feel exposed, you feel seen and you're going to make different choices. It's the same reason why, when we order on the app in our phone, we order 1,500 more calories than if we actually order from a human being, because we feel judged. And so feeling judged not a great thing overall. But if you're trying to shrink your waistline, if you're trying to watch what you eat, sometimes it helps to have that little extra boost of willpower. I mean, think about salad restaurants. Salad restaurants there's one by my house brightly lit, bright colors. It's like walking into a white room in a movie for like a science lab. But then romantic restaurants like pasta it's all candlelight and low light.
05:18 - Speaker 1
Yeah, and whenever I'm in a restaurant now most restaurants I have to bring a big flashlight because I can't see the menu. Right, and then you're going to order a ton of food.
05:25
Again, if you need to stick to a healthy eating plan, turn up the lights. So just yesterday we were getting ready for the show and I looked over and I couldn't. I didn't see Gib at his microphone. He likes to stand up when we're doing this and I looked over there. I didn't see him, but I heard something. I looked down. He was in a plank position on the floor and I said what are you doing?
05:46
He said, well, I'm just doing a 60 second plank and so I look it up. You know, like I don't want to do any good to it because I didn't really want to do it, and it turns out boy, are you right. You can improve your health in 60 seconds by just doing a plank, according to Dr Sherry Pagoda, professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. You got to call her and tell her what happened. Yeah, she says planks. She says planks target your abs and your lower back, strengthening your core and making your spine more stable, which helps you avoid injuries and pain. If you can't hold it for a minute at first 20 seconds and I'm sure a lot of people know what a plank is Can you describe it?
06:22 - Speaker 2
Yeah, so a plank is where you're. I do it on my elbows. I do a low plank, you can do a high plank, which is where you're on your hands and you're on your feet. Basically, you're on a push-up position, right, I go down to my elbows in a push-up position and you just hold it, and you hold it for as long as you can.
06:36 - Speaker 1
Keep your back straight.
06:38 - Speaker 2
Keep your back straight and you engage your core, which you know you hold. Basically you hold your stomach in you kind of flex like you're about to get punched in the stomach, and you hold your body as still as possible. You can do a little bit. There's dynamic planking where you move and get other parts of your abdominals, like your obliques and stuff, but that's it. That's all there is to it and it basically it strengthens the fulcrum, the part of your body that you use for leverage in every activity that you do. It's why it's so good for you Work your way up to a minute. The minute is sort of a magic number of health benefits. And then, once you've spent all the time it takes to work up to a minute and you know how hard that is do yourself a favor and look up the world record for the longest plank. It will astonish you. It's like eight plus hours.
07:17 - Speaker 1
Oh no, come on, it is. It's an ex-marine. Basically, you can improve your health in just 60 seconds by doing a plank. Before I bring you this next piece, giv, I was just thinking. You know why is it that the number one food ordered and Uber eats and all that stuff and Grubhub is pizza? Because, for some reason, pizza just makes us feel better it does. It really, even if you're studying late at night. You know when you were in college you always order pizza.
07:46
Now we know why because the University of Pennsylvania is saying it's about the tomatoes.
07:52 - Speaker 2
Yeah, that's what it's about. So they say the cheese in the bread, it's the tomatoes. Everybody, You're all much healthier than you thought.
07:58 - Speaker 1
I'll never get through this. The compound lycopene in tomatoes helps calm the amygdala, there it is. This is the amygdala, the area of the brain that controls anxiety. So the more tomatoes you eat, the happier you'll be, and remember this when tomatoes are cooked, the lycopene is four times easier to absorb. Yeah, okay so it's all about the tomatoes.
08:16 - Speaker 2
Good for you for having the tomato sauce. Now, everybody that ordered the pesto pizza is feeling a little bit bad.
08:22 - Speaker 1
Is that a thing? Of course? Yeah, like a chicken pesto pizza.
08:26 - Speaker 2
Oh wow, Okay well, I'm sorry that you feel that way, but it's delicious. But yeah, so tomato sauce, obviously. Italians have known this for a very long time. It's comforting. It reminds me of being a kid, so I feel calm and better when I have it. I will say that is 0% of the reason why I like pizza. The cheese and the bread are doing a lot of the heavy lifting there. In fact, sometimes I'll get the cheesy bread and skip the pizza and then dip in the tomato sauce and just eat the cheesy bread sometimes.
08:55 - Speaker 1
So I get it. Yeah, listen, I have a second generation Italian in my house and I don't think more tomatoes is gonna help.
09:06 - Speaker 2
She can't possibly consume more tomatoes without getting sick. And how about some more lycopene? Honey, they just give it to inject it into her somehow.
09:14 - Speaker 1
If you'd like to feel calmer, eat more tomatoes. You heard it here first. I bring this story to you, gib, after a full hour driving to see your daughter play soccer yesterday, and I was in charge of holding Leroy, the dog who does not like the car. He hates the car. I mean just panting and it's terrible. You know, and I'm holding him we bought him one of those thunder shirts which, like, squeezes him and then he's just like.
09:41 - Speaker 2
He pants even more because he can't breathe under the weight of the shirt.
09:45 - Speaker 1
So studies show at least half of all dogs experience noise-related phobias at some point, which can cause them to do what Leroy did and shake and everything was doing all that stuff. So, just like humans use exposure therapy to overcome phobias, dog behaviorist Jenny Harlow recommends desensitization training. Okay, this is a lot of work. It's where you play recordings of loud noises at very low volume at first and then gradually increase the volume over time as your dog learns that the noise won't hurt them. She says if your dog continues to show signs of stress, get them a comforting toy to chew on and reassure them. I guarantee I tried all this stuff.
10:22 - Speaker 2
So you have to titrate it in, right. So that's the key. We've tried a lot of things. I'm inviting her to my house On a one hour car ride.
10:28
But, what we need to do is the five minutes of just putting him in the car and holding him. It's the slow exposure therapy If you have a dog that's afraid of you. It's almost gonna be the fourth of July, starting in May. You should start playing SWAT the DVD for the movie SWAT on your TV, because there's a lot of loud gun noises and the dogs will get used to that.
10:49
And then just slowly increase the volume. Put in a surround sound system in your house and the next thing you know, july 4th comes around your dog is fine, or get a chihuahua, I don't know.
10:59 - Speaker 1
I need the dog whisper. Do you have that number?
11:01 - Speaker 2
Actually, I bet you I can get these from a lot of numbers Okay, because I think that's the only thing that's gonna work.
11:06 - Speaker 1
Great idea, Jenny, though we appreciate it. The psychology of dogs and noises and coming up how guacamole can amp up our brain power and why so many people today are embracing something known as the spontaneous vacation those stories are more coming right up. But first this let's talk brain power, gib. All you have to do to increase it is eat more avocado, also known as guacamole. Research at East Carolina University found avocados contain high levels of vitamin K and pentothenic acid and the nutritional one-two punch. The researchers say that improves communication between your neurons and boost production of dopamine, which boosts focus. After eating just half an avocado a day for a week, your risk of brain fog and memory lapses will be cut in half. I wonder if the chips counteract any of this. I'm asking for a friend.
12:05 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean we know that the chips are not are the part of the avocado consumption that is bad.
12:11 - Speaker 1
How many of those chips that we have? Last night we had a lot of chips. They had the big giant chips.
12:15 - Speaker 2
Yes, what was that? It's their hip way of differentiating themselves. And we don't have just regular chips, we have the full round tortillas that have been fried. Yeah, it was fine. It was fine.
12:25
The avocado is good for you. So keep this in mind. Your brain is just this lump of fat, of fatty acid sitting in a saline solution. So fat and salt. Your brain needs actually a lot of that. Your brain needs it, it consumes it. It's good for you. This is the key to a healthy brain. Are these good fats? It's the unheated olive oil? It's the avocados? These are the kinds of things that will help insulate your brain from the deterioration that comes with age. It's why the low fat trends have actually made us more likely to have brain issues, as we age because we replaced fat with sugar.
13:06
Yes, that's just inflammation. The fat actually protects your brain, that's really well said.
13:11 - Speaker 1
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how guac increases your brain power. So, Gabe, you know me. I like to have something to look forward to, especially a vacation. So, even if it's just a weekend vacation, we've talked about how much more powerful just having a couple of short vacations instead of maybe one big long thing that's so expensive.
13:31
But now there's a new travel trend called spontaneous travel, and I would love this Vacations that are planned in as little as a day, and experts say it could be better for your mental health. So psychologist Emma Kenney has weighed in on this. She has extensive research on the happiness benefits of travel.
13:47
She says last minute trips offer surprisingly less stress because most travel sites offer packages that already include airfare hotels even an itinerary of things to do, so all you got to do is just pack your bags and take off, and spontaneous travel experiences tend to be the most fulfilling. Dr Kenney says that when we're forced to break out of our comfort zone, so traveling withouta lot of research, it builds stronger resilience.
14:11 - Speaker 2
Yeah, pick the right country. Yes, definitely builds stronger resilience, because you're like well, I have no idea where I'm going.
14:18 - Speaker 1
I better be okay, what does?
14:19 - Speaker 2
this say Hostile.
14:21 - Speaker 1
Exactly.
14:22 - Speaker 2
Look, I applaud anybody who has the kind of life where you can, in a day, decide that you're going to go take a trip, with child care and sports schedules and school schedules and all that. I don't think I could pull this off. But I will say, the concept of just you know what I need right now, a vacation, and then boom, you go and you set it up, sounds really appealing.
14:44 - Speaker 1
You could pull it off. You do it and don't tell your family. They would love that.
14:48 - Speaker 2
Oh yeah, everybody loves it when dad just disappears for a week.
14:50 - Speaker 1
No, no, I mean you take, you're taking them with you.
14:52
Okay, I was like well, I mean, oh, that sounds great, I'll be in Vegas, I'll see you guys later, and whether you're on vacation give or you're at home, there's some interesting intel that we just found about when to when to eat your meals. Eating your meals and snacks at the same time every day, even on weekends, could be the key to much better health. First, it helps you sleep better. This is according to the journal. Cell Metabolism Turns out, they say, eating erratically upsets our body's sleep wake cycle and causes something called metabolic jet lag, which can leave you tossing and turning all night. But eating at about the same time every day helps keep our blood sugar and energy levels steady. Also, a study in public health nutrition Found that people who ate at least two meals a day at a specific time consume less fast food. If you were sugary drinks without trying, this is you. I pretty much just eat the whole day, but you're able to fast. For what is it? 16 hours a day, 18 hours a day?
15:49 - Speaker 2
And I eat basically my first bite of food at 1 or 2 PM almost every single day. But this is just another thing that underscores how important habit and regular behavior is for your whole body. So for me it works to wait to eat until the afternoon. It helps me with limit the number of calories that I eat, because I'm a grazer like you are. All of a sudden I will have eaten 2,000 calories just in nuts alone while I walk around looking for something else to eat. So intermittent fasting works for me for that. But look, going to bed and waking up at the same time, eating at the same time, doing certain activities like making your bed at the same time every day, brushing your teeth at the same time. It puts your brain into autopilot on the things that are going to make you healthier and actually frees you up to think creatively and make better decisions throughout the day. It's something we report on in every aspect and now we know eating, feeding at the right time at the same time every day is just another element of that.
16:47 - Speaker 1
Like you said, eating your meals and your snacks at the same time every day, even on weekends, is the key to better health. Let's talk about some workplace intel Gib. According to research from Columbia University, people who work from home wearing something comfortable, they feel more authentic, quote unquote engaged and present in their tasks. And here's a surprise people who wear business clothing at home don't feel any more powerful or in control. Why we're also more upbeat when we're wearing comfy clothes, since we tend to adopt the attitude of the clothes we're wearing. Again, this is from a study from Columbia, but we've seen previous studies that say you need to dress up like you're at work.
17:27 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean. So. I think if you want to treat your work day like a work day, you need to have work sweats. I remember in the height of the pandemic, I had my sleep sweats, my hangout sweats and my work sweats and, yeah, not the healthiest I've ever been in my life, but I will say that having those transitions and I stayed comfortable the whole time was good for my mental health. Just be able to change my pants from one activity to the other was good.
17:54
I recommend this and this works for me, especially if you have to be on Zoom or for meetings. Put something a little bit more presentable on the top and then on the bottom you wear basketball shorts or whatever sweats. You and I, we live in athleisure wear. We live in athleisure wear every time we're, basically when we're not on stage, we're wearing athleisure wear and that works for us and it also feels like work clothes now at this point. So it works for me and I understand that being your authentic self is important. So if the new study says we're just as productive, I say let's embrace the athleisure lifestyle.
18:31 - Speaker 1
It sounds like the description of the mullet right Party on the top.
18:35 - Speaker 2
Business upfront party in the back. Yeah, exactly, this is business. Up Collard shirt, up top Sweatpants and leggings on the bottom. There you go.
18:43 - Speaker 1
That's all we've got for you today. Thank you so much for listening to the John Tesh podcast with Gib Gerard. As always, we'd love it if you would make sure you're subscribed to this show, and we do love your reviews. Please remember to check out tesh.com when you have a moment. We're really proud of our new online piano course and I'd love for you to take a look inside. That's at tesh.com. Until then, I'm John Tesh for Gib Gerard. We will see you next time.
Welcome to the podcast. I'm John Tesh with Gib Gerard. Lots of fun stuff happening in our world right now. The new Tesh.com is live and our new John Tesh piano method has launched. You can find that on the Tesh.com homepage as well. But let's get started here and now with a question who's shoplifting from the self checkout? It's rich people. Nearly one in five people give with an income of $100,000 or more. Admit it to intentionally stealing something while they were at the self checkout Three times more theft than the average person using self checkout. Why? Charance Schulman is a therapist and a lawyer at the Schulman Center and he says of course some people shoplift because they have a need, but wealthy people steal for other psychological reasons. Some do it because they have a thrill, seeking compulsion. Some people with a higher income may also steal because they feel like they deserve something for free, for the inconvenience of having to do what they consider a menial task. This is you.
00:58 - Speaker 2
You're not stealing, but this is you. I want to be very clear. I am not stealing from the self checkout, no, but you want something, but I do feel like I am being. I am an employee at the self checkout line and therefore I'm deserving of-.
01:12 - Speaker 1
A raise.
01:14 - Speaker 2
Or at least the employee discount. Just some ring dings. I just want the employee discount Just give it to me for 40% off or whatever the employee discount is I deserve that.
01:22
So it's that licensing effect. And again, you're talking about people that don't need it for the to be able to eat, they don't need to steal the food. It's not like Aladdin, but it is a licensing thing where it's. Hey, you're making me do the work. I should get something out of this. I absolutely understand the psychology. I don't steal, I don't steal, I don't do that, but I do understand the psychology.
01:46 - Speaker 1
Listen. If you steal, if you walk out of there, if you're listening to us at that self checkout, they will stop you. They will they arrest people to do it.
01:53 - Speaker 2
Yes, who do this? If you get caught, it's not a good thing, yeah, and they just say you need the employee discount.
01:58 - Speaker 1
Yeah, all right. Many people like me love rewatching movies, rereading books, even going on the same vacations again and again. This is so me it's both of us. Yeah, yeah, you're right, and Connie is the other way, mom's the other way. She's like I don't want to go back to that place.
02:14 - Speaker 2
I've already seen this. I've gone there with fish, exactly.
02:17 - Speaker 1
Anyway, while nostalgia sorry, while this, I got to get through this While nostalgia is a big part of it, there's another reason. It's called volitional re-consumption, which you'll never remember. But let me explain it. Yeah, according to the business school of Pepperdine, the rewatching experience allows people to appreciate how much they've grown. How does this work? When you make a deep connection to a show, a book or a vacation spot, you probably have a moment where you think wow, when I first watched this, I was 20 and now I'm 40. I have kids. I remember coming to this place when I was in high school and now I'm here with my spouse. It allows you to appreciate how far you've come.
02:50 - Speaker 2
Yeah, so I love rewatching the shows and movies that I watch as a kid.
02:55 - Speaker 1
Look at how popular friends in slime fell all right now.
02:59 - Speaker 2
They're comforting. They make you relive the time of your life that you watched them. So I absolutely get that. I also like going back to the same vacation spot because I know what to expect, and it's almost the memory of it like this is talking about is just as exciting as the experience that I'm going to get to have. I feel settled. Nothing feels that out of the ordinary. This is why people have vacation homes because they like to go to one place over and over and over again.
03:23 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I get it. Yeah, I absolutely do, and you know I'm going to go watch Gladiator.
03:29 - Speaker 2
For the 900th time. Look at how far you've come. You watched it last week and you're watching it again this week.
03:34 - Speaker 1
That's very funny. Yeah, let's see if we can't find a little more willpower to help us stick to a healthy eating plan. All you have to do, apparently, according to the Journal of Marketing Research, is just turn up the lights more often Now. They studied hundreds of restaurant customers and the result those eating in brightly lit rooms were up to 25% more likely to order healthy meals like vegetables, salads and grilled fish. They also ate 40% fewer calories compared to those who ate in a dark, romantically lit restaurant. It turns out that bright lighting makes our brain more aware of what we're doing, which increases the odds of making healthier food choices. Plus, it's the spotlight effect. Being in a brightly lit setting makes people think that they're being looked at more closely, so we tend to eat better, in case anybody is looking and judging us. I've got some pretty powerful TV lights. I think that's what it would take for me to stop eating.
04:25 - Speaker 2
Put those in the kitchen, put those in the pantry next to the Milano cookies.
04:28 - Speaker 1
I can't live without.
04:29 - Speaker 2
Milano, put those next to the Milano cookies, and the next time you're in there, you're going to be less likely to eat them.
04:34 - Speaker 1
It will take more than that.
04:35 - Speaker 2
But this makes sense. Look, it's that thing you feel exposed, you feel seen and you're going to make different choices. It's the same reason why, when we order on the app in our phone, we order 1,500 more calories than if we actually order from a human being, because we feel judged. And so feeling judged not a great thing overall. But if you're trying to shrink your waistline, if you're trying to watch what you eat, sometimes it helps to have that little extra boost of willpower. I mean, think about salad restaurants. Salad restaurants there's one by my house brightly lit, bright colors. It's like walking into a white room in a movie for like a science lab. But then romantic restaurants like pasta it's all candlelight and low light.
05:18 - Speaker 1
Yeah, and whenever I'm in a restaurant now most restaurants I have to bring a big flashlight because I can't see the menu. Right, and then you're going to order a ton of food.
05:25
Again, if you need to stick to a healthy eating plan, turn up the lights. So just yesterday we were getting ready for the show and I looked over and I couldn't. I didn't see Gib at his microphone. He likes to stand up when we're doing this and I looked over there. I didn't see him, but I heard something. I looked down. He was in a plank position on the floor and I said what are you doing?
05:46
He said, well, I'm just doing a 60 second plank and so I look it up. You know, like I don't want to do any good to it because I didn't really want to do it, and it turns out boy, are you right. You can improve your health in 60 seconds by just doing a plank, according to Dr Sherry Pagoda, professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. You got to call her and tell her what happened. Yeah, she says planks. She says planks target your abs and your lower back, strengthening your core and making your spine more stable, which helps you avoid injuries and pain. If you can't hold it for a minute at first 20 seconds and I'm sure a lot of people know what a plank is Can you describe it?
06:22 - Speaker 2
Yeah, so a plank is where you're. I do it on my elbows. I do a low plank, you can do a high plank, which is where you're on your hands and you're on your feet. Basically, you're on a push-up position, right, I go down to my elbows in a push-up position and you just hold it, and you hold it for as long as you can.
06:36 - Speaker 1
Keep your back straight.
06:38 - Speaker 2
Keep your back straight and you engage your core, which you know you hold. Basically you hold your stomach in you kind of flex like you're about to get punched in the stomach, and you hold your body as still as possible. You can do a little bit. There's dynamic planking where you move and get other parts of your abdominals, like your obliques and stuff, but that's it. That's all there is to it and it basically it strengthens the fulcrum, the part of your body that you use for leverage in every activity that you do. It's why it's so good for you Work your way up to a minute. The minute is sort of a magic number of health benefits. And then, once you've spent all the time it takes to work up to a minute and you know how hard that is do yourself a favor and look up the world record for the longest plank. It will astonish you. It's like eight plus hours.
07:17 - Speaker 1
Oh no, come on, it is. It's an ex-marine. Basically, you can improve your health in just 60 seconds by doing a plank. Before I bring you this next piece, giv, I was just thinking. You know why is it that the number one food ordered and Uber eats and all that stuff and Grubhub is pizza? Because, for some reason, pizza just makes us feel better it does. It really, even if you're studying late at night. You know when you were in college you always order pizza.
07:46
Now we know why because the University of Pennsylvania is saying it's about the tomatoes.
07:52 - Speaker 2
Yeah, that's what it's about. So they say the cheese in the bread, it's the tomatoes. Everybody, You're all much healthier than you thought.
07:58 - Speaker 1
I'll never get through this. The compound lycopene in tomatoes helps calm the amygdala, there it is. This is the amygdala, the area of the brain that controls anxiety. So the more tomatoes you eat, the happier you'll be, and remember this when tomatoes are cooked, the lycopene is four times easier to absorb. Yeah, okay so it's all about the tomatoes.
08:16 - Speaker 2
Good for you for having the tomato sauce. Now, everybody that ordered the pesto pizza is feeling a little bit bad.
08:22 - Speaker 1
Is that a thing? Of course? Yeah, like a chicken pesto pizza.
08:26 - Speaker 2
Oh wow, Okay well, I'm sorry that you feel that way, but it's delicious. But yeah, so tomato sauce, obviously. Italians have known this for a very long time. It's comforting. It reminds me of being a kid, so I feel calm and better when I have it. I will say that is 0% of the reason why I like pizza. The cheese and the bread are doing a lot of the heavy lifting there. In fact, sometimes I'll get the cheesy bread and skip the pizza and then dip in the tomato sauce and just eat the cheesy bread sometimes.
08:55 - Speaker 1
So I get it. Yeah, listen, I have a second generation Italian in my house and I don't think more tomatoes is gonna help.
09:06 - Speaker 2
She can't possibly consume more tomatoes without getting sick. And how about some more lycopene? Honey, they just give it to inject it into her somehow.
09:14 - Speaker 1
If you'd like to feel calmer, eat more tomatoes. You heard it here first. I bring this story to you, gib, after a full hour driving to see your daughter play soccer yesterday, and I was in charge of holding Leroy, the dog who does not like the car. He hates the car. I mean just panting and it's terrible. You know, and I'm holding him we bought him one of those thunder shirts which, like, squeezes him and then he's just like.
09:41 - Speaker 2
He pants even more because he can't breathe under the weight of the shirt.
09:45 - Speaker 1
So studies show at least half of all dogs experience noise-related phobias at some point, which can cause them to do what Leroy did and shake and everything was doing all that stuff. So, just like humans use exposure therapy to overcome phobias, dog behaviorist Jenny Harlow recommends desensitization training. Okay, this is a lot of work. It's where you play recordings of loud noises at very low volume at first and then gradually increase the volume over time as your dog learns that the noise won't hurt them. She says if your dog continues to show signs of stress, get them a comforting toy to chew on and reassure them. I guarantee I tried all this stuff.
10:22 - Speaker 2
So you have to titrate it in, right. So that's the key. We've tried a lot of things. I'm inviting her to my house On a one hour car ride.
10:28
But, what we need to do is the five minutes of just putting him in the car and holding him. It's the slow exposure therapy If you have a dog that's afraid of you. It's almost gonna be the fourth of July, starting in May. You should start playing SWAT the DVD for the movie SWAT on your TV, because there's a lot of loud gun noises and the dogs will get used to that.
10:49
And then just slowly increase the volume. Put in a surround sound system in your house and the next thing you know, july 4th comes around your dog is fine, or get a chihuahua, I don't know.
10:59 - Speaker 1
I need the dog whisper. Do you have that number?
11:01 - Speaker 2
Actually, I bet you I can get these from a lot of numbers Okay, because I think that's the only thing that's gonna work.
11:06 - Speaker 1
Great idea, Jenny, though we appreciate it. The psychology of dogs and noises and coming up how guacamole can amp up our brain power and why so many people today are embracing something known as the spontaneous vacation those stories are more coming right up. But first this let's talk brain power, gib. All you have to do to increase it is eat more avocado, also known as guacamole. Research at East Carolina University found avocados contain high levels of vitamin K and pentothenic acid and the nutritional one-two punch. The researchers say that improves communication between your neurons and boost production of dopamine, which boosts focus. After eating just half an avocado a day for a week, your risk of brain fog and memory lapses will be cut in half. I wonder if the chips counteract any of this. I'm asking for a friend.
12:05 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean we know that the chips are not are the part of the avocado consumption that is bad.
12:11 - Speaker 1
How many of those chips that we have? Last night we had a lot of chips. They had the big giant chips.
12:15 - Speaker 2
Yes, what was that? It's their hip way of differentiating themselves. And we don't have just regular chips, we have the full round tortillas that have been fried. Yeah, it was fine. It was fine.
12:25
The avocado is good for you. So keep this in mind. Your brain is just this lump of fat, of fatty acid sitting in a saline solution. So fat and salt. Your brain needs actually a lot of that. Your brain needs it, it consumes it. It's good for you. This is the key to a healthy brain. Are these good fats? It's the unheated olive oil? It's the avocados? These are the kinds of things that will help insulate your brain from the deterioration that comes with age. It's why the low fat trends have actually made us more likely to have brain issues, as we age because we replaced fat with sugar.
13:06
Yes, that's just inflammation. The fat actually protects your brain, that's really well said.
13:11 - Speaker 1
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how guac increases your brain power. So, Gabe, you know me. I like to have something to look forward to, especially a vacation. So, even if it's just a weekend vacation, we've talked about how much more powerful just having a couple of short vacations instead of maybe one big long thing that's so expensive.
13:31
But now there's a new travel trend called spontaneous travel, and I would love this Vacations that are planned in as little as a day, and experts say it could be better for your mental health. So psychologist Emma Kenney has weighed in on this. She has extensive research on the happiness benefits of travel.
13:47
She says last minute trips offer surprisingly less stress because most travel sites offer packages that already include airfare hotels even an itinerary of things to do, so all you got to do is just pack your bags and take off, and spontaneous travel experiences tend to be the most fulfilling. Dr Kenney says that when we're forced to break out of our comfort zone, so traveling withouta lot of research, it builds stronger resilience.
14:11 - Speaker 2
Yeah, pick the right country. Yes, definitely builds stronger resilience, because you're like well, I have no idea where I'm going.
14:18 - Speaker 1
I better be okay, what does?
14:19 - Speaker 2
this say Hostile.
14:21 - Speaker 1
Exactly.
14:22 - Speaker 2
Look, I applaud anybody who has the kind of life where you can, in a day, decide that you're going to go take a trip, with child care and sports schedules and school schedules and all that. I don't think I could pull this off. But I will say, the concept of just you know what I need right now, a vacation, and then boom, you go and you set it up, sounds really appealing.
14:44 - Speaker 1
You could pull it off. You do it and don't tell your family. They would love that.
14:48 - Speaker 2
Oh yeah, everybody loves it when dad just disappears for a week.
14:50 - Speaker 1
No, no, I mean you take, you're taking them with you.
14:52
Okay, I was like well, I mean, oh, that sounds great, I'll be in Vegas, I'll see you guys later, and whether you're on vacation give or you're at home, there's some interesting intel that we just found about when to when to eat your meals. Eating your meals and snacks at the same time every day, even on weekends, could be the key to much better health. First, it helps you sleep better. This is according to the journal. Cell Metabolism Turns out, they say, eating erratically upsets our body's sleep wake cycle and causes something called metabolic jet lag, which can leave you tossing and turning all night. But eating at about the same time every day helps keep our blood sugar and energy levels steady. Also, a study in public health nutrition Found that people who ate at least two meals a day at a specific time consume less fast food. If you were sugary drinks without trying, this is you. I pretty much just eat the whole day, but you're able to fast. For what is it? 16 hours a day, 18 hours a day?
15:49 - Speaker 2
And I eat basically my first bite of food at 1 or 2 PM almost every single day. But this is just another thing that underscores how important habit and regular behavior is for your whole body. So for me it works to wait to eat until the afternoon. It helps me with limit the number of calories that I eat, because I'm a grazer like you are. All of a sudden I will have eaten 2,000 calories just in nuts alone while I walk around looking for something else to eat. So intermittent fasting works for me for that. But look, going to bed and waking up at the same time, eating at the same time, doing certain activities like making your bed at the same time every day, brushing your teeth at the same time. It puts your brain into autopilot on the things that are going to make you healthier and actually frees you up to think creatively and make better decisions throughout the day. It's something we report on in every aspect and now we know eating, feeding at the right time at the same time every day is just another element of that.
16:47 - Speaker 1
Like you said, eating your meals and your snacks at the same time every day, even on weekends, is the key to better health. Let's talk about some workplace intel Gib. According to research from Columbia University, people who work from home wearing something comfortable, they feel more authentic, quote unquote engaged and present in their tasks. And here's a surprise people who wear business clothing at home don't feel any more powerful or in control. Why we're also more upbeat when we're wearing comfy clothes, since we tend to adopt the attitude of the clothes we're wearing. Again, this is from a study from Columbia, but we've seen previous studies that say you need to dress up like you're at work.
17:27 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean. So. I think if you want to treat your work day like a work day, you need to have work sweats. I remember in the height of the pandemic, I had my sleep sweats, my hangout sweats and my work sweats and, yeah, not the healthiest I've ever been in my life, but I will say that having those transitions and I stayed comfortable the whole time was good for my mental health. Just be able to change my pants from one activity to the other was good.
17:54
I recommend this and this works for me, especially if you have to be on Zoom or for meetings. Put something a little bit more presentable on the top and then on the bottom you wear basketball shorts or whatever sweats. You and I, we live in athleisure wear. We live in athleisure wear every time we're, basically when we're not on stage, we're wearing athleisure wear and that works for us and it also feels like work clothes now at this point. So it works for me and I understand that being your authentic self is important. So if the new study says we're just as productive, I say let's embrace the athleisure lifestyle.
18:31 - Speaker 1
It sounds like the description of the mullet right Party on the top.
18:35 - Speaker 2
Business upfront party in the back. Yeah, exactly, this is business. Up Collard shirt, up top Sweatpants and leggings on the bottom. There you go.
18:43 - Speaker 1
That's all we've got for you today. Thank you so much for listening to the John Tesh podcast with Gib Gerard. As always, we'd love it if you would make sure you're subscribed to this show, and we do love your reviews. Please remember to check out tesh.com when you have a moment. We're really proud of our new online piano course and I'd love for you to take a look inside. That's at tesh.com. Until then, I'm John Tesh for Gib Gerard. We will see you next time.