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Scot: Troy, I've got a question for you. I want you to go back to Troy as a young boy. Are you there?

Troy: I am there. And my mind just went back to seventh grade, which was an absolutely miserable time of my life. So thanks, Scot.

Scot: All right. Do you remember at any point, seventh grade, younger, older, Troy, as a young boy, your mom talking to you about health issues, or did you learn any lessons from your mom about your health?

Troy: I would say yes, I did. Yeah. I mean, I can think of lessons I learned growing up about my health, so sure.

Scot: So did she actually sit you down and say, "Now, Troy, you're a boy"?

Troy: "You're becoming a man now." No.

Scot: Did she actually impart wisdom upon you, or is this just more stuff you observed, or what?

Troy: Probably a combination. Yeah, healthy habits observed and just points of emphasis in terms of activity, exercise, not watching a lot of TV, that kind of stuff.

Scot: So that was something that was actively kind of either discussed or modeled in your home?

Troy: Yeah, it was. The one thing we could always watch on TV if we wanted was the news. If we wanted to watch the news, we could watch the news. So I grew up watching the news.

Scot: Okay. Mitch, how about you? Do you as a young boy remember your mom talking to you about health? Or did you pick up any lessons?

Mitch: What kind of comes to mind is that back when I was younger, my mom was big into biking. And she had this group of amazing strong women, and they'd go out and they'd do these big bike races and stuff together.

Scot: That's cool.

Mitch: Yeah, right? And the two big memories that come to my mind is, one, a time when she invited me along to join her at the gym to work out, and she teased me a little bit that she could lift more than me.

And then a second, her and my father, before I was born, agreed who was going to have the different big talks they felt kids needed to have. And my mom was the one that . . . I don't know if they drew straws or she just volunteered, but she's the one that gave me the sex talk.

So those are my two big definite . . . And of course, modeling. Yeah, she was very, very healthy. She still takes an active role in her health, and it's something that I try really hard to learn from. But man, those two things were the big memories of health conversations as a kid.

Troy: Yeah. Who's going to forget that second one?

Scot: I did. I don't remember anybody having that talk with me.

Troy: You just never had it. If you had it, you would never . . .

Scot: I don't want to put my mom in a bad light or anything, but I thought long and hard. I don't really remember a conversation. I guess she made up all of our meals, and if I was to really look back, she modeled good nutrition because every meal had a protein and a veggie and a fruit, right? And they were very well balanced.

But I don't remember her actively engaging in my health or saying, "You need to be active," or, "You need to exercise," or any of that sort of thing. And maybe she did. I don't know.

Today, we have a mom on the show that is taking an active role and using information from the "Who Cares About Men's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ" podcast because she wants her son to be his healthiest self.

So this is the second in a series of episodes that we're calling "Women Who Care About Men's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ." And this is an effort to continue to challenge old paradigms. By doing so, we're asking women what they want the men in their lives to know about health, because it's just a different perspective.

And before Mitch especially, or any of us, regresses into this inner grumpy teenager, and we know Mitch had one, who doesn't want their mom to tell them anything about anything, let's just remember we're adults here and that our moms just want the best of us no matter how old we are. So this is some good perspective.

This is "Who Cares About Men's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ," information, inspiration, and a different interpretation of men's health. My name is Scot Singpiel. I bring the BS. The MD to my BS, Dr. Troy Madsen.

Troy: Hey, Scot. Excited to be here, and I'm very excited for this conversation.

Scot: He's an I-care-about-my-health convert, Producer Mitch.

Mitch: Hey there.

Scot: And because Troy knows today's guest best, I'm going to let Troy introduce her.

Troy: Well, this is Melanie. Our listener, Melanie, from Virginia. She is an avid listener. She says she loves the podcast, but even better, she's my youngest sister and one of my favorite people in the world. I love Melanie so much, and I am so glad she agreed to join us on the show.

Melanie: Oh, thank you. I'm so glad to be part of this. This is my first . . . I'm an avid listener, so I was very excited for the opportunity to speak on the podcast.

Scot: So the question is . . . I mean, you're an avid listener. Is it because Troy is on it, or did you discover it before Troy, or . . .?

Melanie: That would be awesome. No, I was introduced to it because of Troy.

Scot: So even if Troy wasn't on the show, you would . . .

Melanie: I would still be listening.

Scot: You would listen.

Melanie: I recommend it to all my friends.

Scot: That's so exciting. That's awesome. So tell us a little bit . . . so you have a boy. His name is Rivers. Tell us a little bit about Rivers and how you've used the podcast in talking to him about his health, a different experience than I experienced as a kid.

Melanie: Yeah. So Rivers is my only ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ and I had the opportunity . . . He's a runner. Surprise, surprise.

Troy: Yeah, it seems to run in the family. And he's 13 years old.

Melanie: Yeah. So, in sixth grade, he began running, and he recognized pretty early on that he's a very good runner. And he just actually won the race last Saturday and set a record for the freshmen, but he's in eighth grade.

I had the opportunity to coach Rivers for a year, and that was really fun because I got to have a lot of involvement not only with Rivers, but also with all the kids his age. And so they spent a lot of time asking me different questions with nutrition and with injuries or aches and pains, things like that, sleeping, all of those things.

So we talk about health all the time in our family. That's probably Rivers' number one topic of conversation.

Scot: Really? Wow.

Melanie: Oh, yes. And so he's always challenging me, always giving me new things to look at. I've definitely pulled on the podcast many times to have him listen to different things, different perspectives, and also credibility. It's always nice to say, "Hey, this is what Troy or Thunder says about this and how to go about doing different things."

So it's been actually a huge help and he loves listening to you guys. It's such a fun podcast because he feels like he's one of the guys and . . .

Scot: I love it. Hey, Rivers. How are you doing, man? I love it. That's awesome.

Troy: Yeah, Just hanging out with us, chatting. That's really cool to hear that he's into it and listens. I always tell Melanie if it's John Smith, be sure and screen it before you let Rivers listen to it. Anything John Smith, you've got to screen it.

Scot: Maybe a couple more years, he'll be listening to John Smith.

Troy:Maybe. Not right now.

Scot: Melanie, first of all, before we get into this, and before we get to your list, what's your list? What'd you call your list here for the show?

Melanie: The Top Five ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵy Habits for Life.

Scot: Okay. Top Five ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵy Habits for Life. So if you have sons, these might be five things that will be useful to you.

But before we get to that, you said you had a little game. You're going to test our Troy Madsen knowledge.

Melanie: Exactly.

Scot: I already have an answer: talking about running. I think that's the answer.

Troy: Something about running. I know.

Scot: Yeah. What does he do all the time? Talking about . . . No, I'm kidding.

Troy: Yeah, exactly.

Melanie: So it's a Troy trivia question, and it's just one question to start things out. So what is a favorite song on Troy's running playlist?

Scot: Oh, this is great.

Melanie: It's specifically the year 1999. And it could be arguably not a song.

Scot: Well, I'm going to say Baz Luhrmann, "Wear Sunscreen."

Troy: Oh, yeah.

Melanie: You got it.

Troy: You got it, Scot. Strong work, man. I'm glad you put that. That's so cool, Melanie, you put that on there. That is. That's on my running playlist. I listen to it. And I love it because that's the year I graduated from college, so it's kind of my graduation song.

And there's so much wisdom in it. A lot of it is just kind of silly stuff. I always think the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself. That's one of the things in there. Don't compare yourself to others. Your choices are half luck, and so are everybody else's. Stuff in there just kind of registers like, "Hey, it's cool." So, anyway, thanks, Melanie. That's a great song.

Scot: Arguably, tempo-wise it's not a great running song, but . . .

Mitch: All about that cadence.

Scot: Yeah. Here's what I think I know about Troy. Running is just as much therapy as anything else. So this is some positive affirmations during his running, is what this serves.

Troy: It is. It really is. Yeah, exactly. You're exactly right. That's cool.

Melanie: So now that you guys know this, what I've done is I've gone through . . . As Troy said, there are a lot of great quotes in it, lots of great things to think about. And so I'm going to give a line from the song, and then you guys need to guess what the healthy habit . . . And sometimes I lump a few habits together.

Scot:Okay.

Troy: Okay. Yeah, the framework of this, of course, is these are healthy habits you want to teach Rivers, or you've taught Rivers, or . . .

Melanie: Exactly.

Scot: That you feel are important . . .

Troy: You feel are important.

Scot: . . . that young boys, future men should know.

Melanie: Yes, exactly.

Scot: I mean, he's a 13-year-old. I'm sorry, Rivers. I keep calling you young boy. I really apologize.

Troy: The kid is a teenager. Give him some credit.

Scot: Sorry, brah. Trying to bring it up. All right. Let's go ahead. So are we starting with number five or number one? Are these in any particular order?

Melanie: It's not in any order of importance. It's in order in which the quote comes in the song.

Scot: All right. Well, let's go. I'm looking forward to this. This sounds fun.

Melanie: Okay, great. So the first one is, as you guys could guess, "wear sunscreen."

Troy: Wear sunscreen.

Mitch: If I could offer you one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.

Troy:Sunscreen would be it.

Melanie: Very good, Mitch.

Troy: The rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I love it.

Melanie: I love it.

Scot: All right. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the health message is more than just wearing sunscreen, which is a great health message.

Troy: It is.

Scot: Preventative care.

Mitch: It's preventative care.

Scot: It's about prevention.

Troy: Nice.

Melanie:Very good.

Scot: It's about being proactive in your health. So, yeah, expand on that a little bit, that thought.

Melanie: So what I was thinking about is that preventative care is, by far, the cheapest care. Floss is super cheap. Even though Sonicare toothbrushes are expensive, in comparison to a crown, they're just pennies, right?

And then you've got your sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, and then of course, your yearly exams, which I feel like are the number one way . . . You guys have talked about this a lot. The number one way to prevent illnesses or . . .

Troy: Just preventive care in general. Yeah, just screening, cancer. Get cancer screenings.

Scot: Get a handle on things before they become a big problem.

Melanie: Yeah, exactly. And I feel like it's very common for women to typically stay on top of these things. And then men, if they are on top of it, it's often because their partner has scheduled them. And I think that it's important for men to take that proactive role, including the checks from the dermatologist, skin checks.

Troy: Yeah, that's great. I like that you brought up flossing. And just to put that in perspective too, Melanie could probably give you the exact cost of a crown since her husband is a dentist. Ben is a dentist. So she could put a price on that. But yeah, just simple stuff like that.

And I can attest to that 100%. There is so much value in prevention. The more time I spend in medicine, the more I'm just a believer in the best approach is prevention, especially being in the ER where you see the end result of all the stuff that wasn't prevented. If you can just do the prevention, that's the way to go for sure.

Mitch:Even just yesterday, I had some pretty serious dental work done. And I have good teeth, I thought, and I brush twice a day, whatever. And my dentist was like, "I know the studies say you don't have to floss every day, but you've got to floss sometimes." And I'm just like, "Oh, I don't know about that."

But here I am getting shots and numbed and scraped and feeling miserable the next day. It really would've taken me maybe 10, 15 seconds a couple times a week with some cheap string to avoid that whole experience.

Scot: A couple times a day, I would say, as opposed to a week, but . . .

Mitch: From zero, let's take little steps.

Scot: Okay. I'm sorry. All right.

Troy: Just floss on Sundays or something, yeah.

Mitch: Sure, at the very least.

Troy:That's a good starting point.

Scot: All right. I love it. Prevention. So wear that sunscreen, do those things in your life that can help alleviate bigger problems down the road, or try to figure out what it is you're doing that could lead to them and try to minimize that. That's good advice. I like it. What's number two?

Melanie: Know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.

Troy: I mean, I'm going to say this is about mental health.

Melanie: Yep, exactly. When I'm talking to Rivers, I refer to it as [Eddie's 00:14:43], like when you're going down a river and the water just spins around and around and it's so hard to get out of. And that's those ruminating thoughts or you're worrying about this and that. And so what I feel like I'm trying to teach him is creating a habit of daily meditation every day and breathing techniques.

I really like, and Mitch has mentioned it in the podcast before, the square breathing. And I've talked to a lot of the kids on the cross-country team about that square breathing because I feel like sports brings out a lot of these things. They bring out those underlying anxieties.

And so, before races, we have kids that are throwing up and just really worked up. I talk to them about stepping away from the group and just working on that square breathing. And I tell Rivers with those daily meditations, it's not to prevent . . . it's not to fix the problem right then. It's to help you when the problem arises.

Mitch: And just to hop in real quick, it's not just sports. I teach a Calm 101 course at the community college and every single student there has to public speak. It's a required assignment.

I spend a whole day talking about anxiety and teaching them box breathing because that little bit of fear of being in front of a bunch of people you don't really know and having to give a speech and everything like that, I cannot tell you night and day now that I've started to incorporate a discussion of anxiety and teaching them to box breathe how much better and less afraid they feel speaking.

I just wish all younger people were taught this. I just learned it, what, a year ago, but I just wish everyone knew it. So I'm glad to hear that you're using it too.

Troy: That's so great too. Yeah, I love that you're talking to the team about it because I remember being back Rivers' age and running. I ran the mile in track and the mile was always the last event of the day. So you'd go to these track meets and you would just sit around all day waiting for it and just feeling so anxious and feeling miserable.

The guys doing the hurdles and stuff are done by 9:00 a.m. and just chilling and hanging out with the girls, and I'm just this nervous wreck just waiting for this miserable race to finish out the day. So I wish I had more coaching on anxiety at that point, or at least I wish I had done hurdles instead of the mile.

Melanie: Do the sprinting events.

Troy: Yeah, the sprinters were always done fast. They're always the bigger, tougher guys anyway. They're just chilling, having a great time. I'm just like, "Why did I do this?"

Melanie: Totally.

Scot: When you said that line from the song . . . I'm going to take this analogy a little bit further, the way my brain took it. So worrying is like trying to solve an algebra problem by chewing bubble gum. I think mental health, sometimes we do things that aren't actually helping us to address our mental health issues, a la chewing bubble gum. The best way to solve the algebra equation, you get out the pencil and figure it out, right?

So I think it's about developing the skills and the tools necessary that actually have been proven to help with whatever mental health issues you're facing with, whether it's the normal stuff that all of us face or you have something a little bit more extreme like anxiety disorder or something like that.

Be sure you're getting those tools that are actually going to help. Don't go to tools that don't, like buying stuff on Amazon or drinking or drugs or those sorts of things. That's kind of what I took away from that. So I'm going to go ahead and add that there.

Melanie: Yeah, that's excellent.

Scot: Number three. Yes, this is good. I'm liking this.

Melanie: All right. Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Scot: I'm going to go ahead and say one time when I was at the playground, I was watching this kid doing just that. This kid would watch his feet when he ran, he would jump up on things, he would jump off of things. He was just experiencing the joy of moving and getting out and doing things with his body.

And I'm just like, "How come we lose that when we get older? Why don't we do those things and have fun with those things? Either we abandon it entirely or we sit on a boring exercycle all day."

Melanie: Seriously. There's a military park nearby where the military does their drills and things like that, and I don't think they really like people getting on it. But my husband, Ben, and Rivers just love doing the stuff. And I always think, "We need to have adult playgrounds."

Scot: Yes, preach. You're absolutely right. I felt the exact same way, Melanie. But I think what you're getting at here is physical activity, right? Just find something that you want to do and enjoy it.

Melanie: Yes, exactly. I think it was quite a few years ago, at least three years ago. When Troy had told me that he just made it . . . When he first started running, he made sure he ran just a minimum of 20 minutes a day. He could do it even when he had a late shift, or on really tough days, he could still get in that 20 minutes. And I just feel like that's an excellent floor. So that's what I've been trying to always stick to.

And it's been neat because as Rivers has gotten into his running, things like that, that's really kind of become his standard. Even in the summers, he's like, "Okay, I've got to do a physical activity for at least 20 minutes."

Troy: That's cool. Nice.

Melanie: And it's great because lots of times, it's a lot longer, over an hour or more, but that 20 minutes is doable.

And then I lumped into that one, as well, nutritious eating. What I was thinking about is I just loved the whole podcast series where you guys were learning to cook new food. It's so fun. And I loved trying the recipes that you guys were learning.

I was thinking how it would be really neat if I could eventually . . . which I have not done well with, but send Rivers out of the house when he graduates where he can easily say, "Okay, I can make seven nutritious meals reliably and easily and at low cost."

Troy: That's great.

Scot:I love that.

Mitch:I wish I had that because that's where . . . College is where I got my roller food addiction. That's when that happened. It was like, "Oh, I'll just walk down to the Sev on the way home from class."

Troy:Yeah, that's not a skill I had for sure. My cooking skills were limited to microwave hotdog, and microwave sausage, and other microwaveable meats. So that's pretty much my skills.

Scot: I think sometimes you hear people say, "You need to have a wide variety of stuff," but Thunder has even mentioned this just in passing, we've never done an in-depth conversation about this, that that's not kind of how a lot of people eat. People tend to have four or five things that they go back to all the time, and he says, as a nutritionist, that's fine as long as those are balanced.

It actually makes it easier because you could easily make it and you don't have to stress about it, and you don't have to think too much about it, right? You're lowering that barrier of getting some nutritious food prepared.

So I love that. I think that's such a great skill to send Rivers out in the world with.

Melanie: I like that too because there are a lot of times I'll show up at the grocery store and it's like, "Oh, I didn't make my whole meal plan and grocery list today." But if you have just a couple recipes, you're like, "Okay, I need the cucumber, the red pepper, the quinoa, and the black beans."

Mitch: That zesty lentil, right?

Melanie: Exactly.

Scot: What's your next one on your list? What's number four?

Melanie: Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious view, you should hold on.

Troy: Yeah, that one really resonates with me a lot.

Mitch: Is that about the male loneliness and the inability to make friends? Didn't we do an episode on that? Yeah, we did.

Troy: We did, yeah. I mean, I think that one is really about friendship and reaching out to people and trying to . . . I think it continues on and says something like, "The older you get, the more you need people you knew when you were young," which is an interesting thought. Again, I think it probably relates more to keeping in touch with friends, maintaining friendships, developing new friendships, kind of that social aspect.

Scot: And that next line, what that says to me is sometimes you need to have somebody that can say, "Hey, you're not the same person you were five years ago. What's up?" Right?

Troy: Interesting.

Scot: It has that shared sense of history that knows the Troy that was versus the Troy that is and is able to pick that out and bring that out too.

And I think it also speaks to not being afraid to have a deeper relationship with somebody and maybe broaching a topic that's a little scary to you when you need to. It can go both ways.

Melanie, why don't you expand on your thoughts on that?

Melanie: It's very common to see women out walking with their friends or running groups with women, things like that. But I feel like men, it's very easy to not take care of that social side that we all need.

We're people that need other people, and it's important to have that time with friends and doing things that you love to do. And so it's a great way if you can get somebody to go run with or to go cycle with and just be able to get your physical activity in as well as get some time to talk to a friend.

Scot: And I think for Rivers that's a great lesson, because right now it's easy to have friends, right? Friends are built into every aspect of the life when you're younger, but then when you start going out on your own, it's a lot more difficult and you have to actively work at that. So is that a conversation you've had, or will have, or . . .

Melanie: Yeah. I think that that's a big thing, and just recognizing that you need to make time for that.

Mitch: Since this is the mom episode, the one thing that my mom taught me about this is she always talked about how you had to find your tribe, because for some people, we don't have tribes in our families. Some of us, we have to go out and find our own. And especially for men, once we leave the home, once you're not in school and it becomes really, really hard to find them and stuff, it can be really easy to shrink down and try to get through this life 100% by yourself. And that's not how humans are supposed to be, right?

And so she always used to talk about finding people in your tribe and finding the people that you want to be a part of your journey, be a part of seeing you, wanting to see you, wanting to see you succeed, and help you when you need it.

If we're reaching out to Rivers right now, start getting into the habit now. Because man, when you're even my age . . . I'm about to turn 35 and I have some good people, but it's a challenge and I wish I had spent more time when I was younger building some of those.

Scot: Hey, Rivers, I'd recommend being a lone wolf like Uncle Scot. You don't need anybody.

Troy: Yeah, you're good.

Scot: All by yourself. You're tough.

Mitch: How's that going?

Scot: Yeah, right? All right. Well, we're almost to the end here, which makes me a little sad. This has been a lot of fun. What is number five on the list?

Melanie: So this one is be careful with the advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. So what do you think I'm trying to get at with that one?

Troy: That's a good line for the listeners of this podcast. It's like be patient with us as we try to provide advice because we're kind of clueless, so we're just . . .

Mitch: We're figuring it out.

Troy: We're trying to figure it out. Yeah, I don't know that we provide advice as much as we just try to create a forum to talk about stuff.

Scot: Yeah. What was your thought? What were you going for?

Melanie: So this is a little bit of a maze, but what it is, is be a consumer of knowledge, not of social media. And the reason why is I feel like . . . Well, one, Ben likes to tell Rivers often, "Readers are leaders. Are you going to spend your time reading books written by experts or watching TikTok hacks on how to be more effective?"

Troy: Nice.

Melanie: But why I feel like this is a health habit is because I feel like we're way more likely to stay up late watching TikTok and scrolling social media than we are reading great literature or things to help improve our knowledge.

And so I feel like protecting sleep, we must treat it like it's an important activity. I think we said it before that sleep is the new smoking and that we need to just make sure we're getting in that sleep every night, the amount that we need. It's really common now in the high school for kids to just be going on very limited sleep and then just drinking the energy drinks.

Mitch: Oh, sure. That was me. It's not just now. We have been around forever.

Melanie: Yes. And it's just crazy. I'll hear about kids that are up until 3:00 a.m. playing video games and that's just . . . That sleep is just not being cared for the way it should be.

Scot: Prioritizing sleep can be really, really hard, and it's something that I've come to appreciate since we started doing the podcast. It's just as important as mental health, nutrition and activity for staying healthy now and in the future. I mean, it can kind of make you prioritize.

And I struggle with that same thing, right? I think that there are some good things on social media. There are good some sources out there and there's some good information, but it can also be very addicting, and you can end up sacrificing a good hour, hour and a half before bed, when really if you'd invested that in your sleep, that's just a direct investment in your health. So I appreciate, Melanie, that you gave that importance.

Any final thoughts as we wrap this up when you think about Rivers and what you would want him to take out of a conversation with his buds, his buddy Scot, his Uncle Troy, Mr. Mitch?

Mitch: I'm Mr. Mitch.

Troy: Mr. Mitch. Very formal for Mitch. The rest of us are tight with him.

Melanie: I guess I'm curious what you guys would say if you were looking back at where you were as a teenager and what you wish that you had prioritized or that you were happy that you did and that you feel like it made a big difference.

Scot: Oh, that's a good one.

Troy: Oh, that's tough.

Scot: Mitch can go ahead and start on that.

Mitch: I got one.

Scot: Oh, good.

Mitch: It was a journal prompt in some self-help book I'm in now. So don't worry about it. Here we go. Dear 13-year-old Mitch and Rivers. The big thing to really focus on is getting deep in your heart, in your soul, in the back of your mind that this life is your life, this body is your body, your health is your health.

Be curious. Try things out and figure out what works best for you. Don't assume that you are a failure just because you didn't do it the way that someone else did. Find out what works for you and commit to it.

So that's my little bit of thing I wish I learned forever ago. It's just decades of being like, "I can't be healthy because I don't look like a guy on a cover of a magazine." No. We don't need to do that.

Melanie: There's so much comparison, yes.

Scot: And yeah, high school's the worst, junior high, the comparison. I mean, what a rough place. Troy, do you want to go?

Troy: I think I really liked the part where we talked about the anxiety piece of it. And I love that Melanie's coaching the team and talking to Rivers about anxiety and coping strategies. I wish I had more of that. I think a lot of my early teen years as very anxious years.

Mitch:So much healthier than "just power through it" or "be strong" or whatever.

Troy: Yeah, exactly. You don't talk about it. You just power through it. You just say, "It's there. You've got to do whatever it is in spite of it rather than acknowledging it and finding coping strategies." So I think that's wonderful you're doing that.

Melanie: Thank you.

Scot: I think my big thing would be consistency in healthy activities and not . . . I'm struggling to come up with the word. Just be consistent over being fanatical. I spent a lot of my time with a lot of my health habits being fanatical for short periods of time and then not being anything for long periods of time. And I just think with stuff like activity, if you can get in that 20 minutes a day, I think that's brilliant, right? That's all it takes.

I think being consistent most of the time with what you eat and allowing yourself to stray from that once in a while. But I think just consistency across the board with sleep, with everything, that would be my advice.

Melanie: I love it.

Scot: Something I wish I would've known earlier in my life.

Melanie: Totally. Yeah, I listened to another podcast and the host talks about floors and ceilings and having that floor to help with consistency. That wasn't something I realized until I was well into my 30s. And it definitely makes a big difference in overall health. We don't have to be perfect and hit the ideal every time. We just have to . . .

Troy: Yeah. Just have something that's achievable, do it consistently, and then now and then, you do some really cool stuff that's a lot more difficult.

Scot: Spend a lot of time laying on the floor. Once in a while, hit the ceiling, I guess.

Troy: Exactly.

Scot: As long as your floor is high enough, right? You want to . . .

Troy: Have a reasonable floor.

Scot:Yeah, I love it. So let's wrap this show up like we do with a challenge. Call your mom or a mom-like person in your life and ask them . . . Catch up a little and then ask them about your health. How are they perceiving it? What do they care most about when it comes to your health? You probably are going to surprise them. I can see my mom's reaction already, but I'm going to try this.

Ask them if there is anything that they're concerned about. Is there anything that they'd like to tell you? And you might be surprised by the answers they give, and it might give you a little insight into your life.

And I would recommend that whatever it is they say, just absorb it, take it in, resist the urge, especially if it's something a little negative, to strike back right away. Just marinate on it and you might find some truth in those words that might help you become healthier and a better person.

Let us know how that goes for you . . .

Troy: This will be interesting.

Scot: . . . by emailing us at hello@thescoperadio.com. Thanks for listening. Thanks for caring about men's health.

 

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