The Thinker's Apprentice

In this episode we talk all about Imposter Syndrome, what it is, and how to overcome it. Topics include:

• What it is and how it presents. I list all the various symptoms you may feel if you're experiencing imposter syndrome.
• I tell a good long story about a decade of imposter syndrome that I dealt with.
• I use that story to highlight how this unfolds in real scenarios, of which I provided plenty of examples. 
• And I explain how it can show up in more than just the workplace. It shows up with new pursuits and endeavors, because before you can ever get good at anything, you have to be really bad at it first. 
• Then I go into the reality of what imposter syndrome is and where it comes from. It's a pattern of self-destructive thoughts that have no basis in or consideration of reality. 
• I explain how it's us that hold ourselves accountable to these impossible standards we make for ourselves. Standards that could never be met so we'll always fall short. And when everything we do is perceived as a failure then are we not failures ourselves? This gets at the heart of imposter syndrome.
• Then I explain how imposter syndrome can result in a chronic stress response, because you always have anxiety that the shoe is going to drop. This means you're always in fight-or-flight sympathetic nerve activation. The body can only keep that up for so long before things break down.
• Then we get into how to beat imposter syndrome and that starts with challenging your thoughts and reframing them. And I go over how exactly we do that. 
• And over time we use deliberate thought to override and reprogram automatic thought. Whether we believe it or not we reframe all our negative thoughts into neutral or positive one. And over time it gets internalized and our feelings change. 
• And in this weeks Call-to-Action we do exactly this. We write down our 5 most persistent thoughts that make us feel like imposters. Then for each of them we reframe them 3 different ways. I give some examples. And this is the way we overcome imposter syndrome. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode I talk about something I deeply care about and that's Nature. I share my thoughts, some stats, and some science. Topics include:

• How we lost the nature inside of us and how despite how much we pretend otherwise, we're still animals at the end of the day.
• I throw some shade at this modern world we've created and how much havoc it wreaks on us and our mental and physical health.
• And Nature is the place we can go to get away from it all. A place of solace that we've all but forgotten about. 
• Then I go into all the physiological and mental benefits of Nature, many of which have been scientifically documented. 
• Then I go into the fact that we're eliminating nature from our world. We see it as something in the way. Something with little value to us as consumers. Something that we don't have to nurture and care for. And this is a major problem.
• I run some depressing statistics about just how much we're destroying the world and it's alarming. 
• Then I talk about public lands and conservation in America and what a success it's been and just how rare that is globally. 
• I try and paint a picture of just what we've done to this earth in our short time here.
• Then I talk about some of the times that nature has completely awed me and how nature is the only thing that's ever left me in awe. 
• And then our Call-to-Action is just to get out there and experience nature and all it has to offer. Go hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, climbing, mountaineering, orienteering, kayaking, whatever. Just get out there and enjoy the natural world and all it has to offer. Our lives on the internet are not real.
• And then I leave you with a great quote from the father of conservation, Teddy Roosevelt.
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we talk all about how and why we get fat as well as how we burn fat most effectively. Topics include:

• Some general biology of the human body and how it works on a cellular level and how hormone signaling works.
• We get introduced to a few of the major metabolic hormones: insulin, cortisol, leptin, and glucagon. We go over each and discuss the role they play in either getting fat or getting skinny.
• Then we talk about the way people get fat in the first place. And to do this we use the Standard American Diet, which applies to the majority of Americans and first worlders.
• We talk about the glucose rollercoaster and never ending onslaught of insulin in our diets and how that ruins our health over time.
• We talk about why so many people fail to lose weight when they don't take their hormones in account. It's a recipe for failure. 
• Then we talk about how to get skinny and how to master your hormones for effortless weight management. 
• The way we do this is by become fat-adapted and reducing our daily carbohydrate intake. 
• We do this over a 3 week period in order to let our bodies adjust slowly so that we don't initiate an onslaught of stress hormones that will ultimately work against us. 
• And after 3 weeks we get to where we need to be to be effortlessly losing weight while feeling great. We master our hormones.
• Then I give you a couple of tips to help you out during the transition and after. 
• And then in this week's Call-to-Action we go through this 3 week adaptation period and become fat-adapted. In doing so we begin to master our own hormones and reclaim our health and fitness. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this podcast we talk about the 5 most pervasive myths in diet, health, and well-being. Topics include:

• Myth 1: Your body needs dietary carbohydrates
• Myth 2: Eating fat makes you fat
• Myth 3: Cholesterol is bad for your health
• Myth 4: Salt intake is the cause of high blood pressure
• Myth 5: Red meat is bad for your health.
• I also dive into the myth that red meat is bad for the environment as that one has been gaining tractions lately.
• How people are getting the health and body composition they want, reversing incurable illnesses, and more, all by going against the conventional wisdom.
• Then in this week's Call-to-Action I task the listeners with spreading the word. The world is in the midst of a health and obesity epidemic, and these myths share a lot of the blame. By spreading the truth about these falsehoods we can take the first step towards reclaiming the health that is the birthright of each and every one of us.
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we discuss the difference between perfection and excellence. Topics include:

• Perfectionism. We define it and explain what it is and how it plays out in your life. We discuss how ludicrous a concept perfection is and why I believe it's a mental illness. 
• We talk about the many negative effects perfectionism has on your life. 
• Then we talk about excellence. While excellence and perfection seem to be synonymous, they are actually opposites. Excellence is everything perfectionism would like to be.
• I explain why we should pursue excellence instead of perfection.
• I give a very common example of how perfectionism and excellence play out in the context of a diet. This highlights why the perfectionist often fails, while those seeking excellence often succeed.
• In this week's Call-to-Action we take a little questionnaire to see if we may have some tendencies of the perfectionist. And if we do we talk about how to shift into an excellence mindset. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

This podcast is all about creating a digital diet with our screen time and media consumption in order to maintain our physical and mental health. Topics include:

• A rant about Jersey Shore.
• How we're all addicted to screen time in one way or another. 
• How the media we consume affects who we are and how we think and behave, whether we want it to or not.
• How anything that you're exposed to excessively or repetitively will wire itself into your brain.
• Then I introduce the idea that screen time addiction (and we're all addicted) operates in the exact same way that narcotics operate. When you break it down to nuts and bolts it fits the bill of a drug. 
• I talk about the various rationalizations we make to justify our addictions.
• Then we get into what to do about it. We can't eliminate screen time entirely. We wouldn't even want to. It's fun and enjoyable and we shouldn't deprive ourselves. But there's a fine line between enjoying ourselves and being addicted.
• And the answer is a digital diet. We treat media like foods we consume, which all exist on a spectrum of good choices neutral choices, and bad choices. And you know instinctively which of your media choices falls where. And we treat it all like a diet. Limit junk food, fast occasionally, binge every now and again. Use the diet framework to manage your screen time.
• Then I address why this is necessary for your health. All the diet and exercise in the world won't keep you healthy if you have excessive screen time. There's just too many detrimental physical and mental effects. 
• Then we get into this week's Call-to-Action. This week we assess our digital diet and see where we can improve. Can we reduce junk food? Frequency of eating? Amount we consume at once? What positive steps can we take? 
• Then I challenge the listeners to go one entire day with zero screen time. No TV, no internet, no phone, no calls, no texts, no emails, nothing. See if you can do it. You'll learn more about your addiction in one day of abstinence than you would in a lifetime of rationalization.
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we revisit the first 3 episodes of this podcast, which create the foundation for achieving anything you want in this life. Topics include:

• The 3 pillars of achievement: the growth mindset, belief, and discipline
• We go over each of these, one at a time, and discuss their importance.
• We spend extra time on discipline, which I believe to be the most powerful thing any person could ever cultivate within themselves. 
• And that's it. In this week's Call-to-Action we do a self-assessment of those three traits and how well we've cultivated them within ourselves. We also break down a goal we failed to achieve through the lens of these 3 traits. 
• Finally I give you 2 sure ways to start cultivating discipline within yourself. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this week's episode I go over the first year of this podcast including what I learned, how I grew, where I failed, where I succeeded, and more. I also discuss what's in store for the next year. A few notable topics discussed include:

• How the concept of the podcast had to evolve during the year to include a more broad array of topics.
• My interactions with the weight loss community.
• How life circumstances led me to burnout and how I dealt with that.
• Why I have been really passionate about exploring the mental health epidemic lately.
• How I am still just an apprentice, and while I teach you I am also teaching myself.
• I touch on my goals...and yours.
• Then I explain why I steer clear of politics as much as I can.
• Then we talk about what's in store for the next year of the podcast.
• And in this week's Call-to-Action we reflect back on who we were a year ago and compare that to who we are now. Incremental progress is hard to see, but when you zoom out a larger picture emerges.
• Then we imagine ourselves a year from now and we use that image to set our goals and plans moving forward. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we talk about cognitive distortions and the havoc they wreak on our lives. Topics discussed:

• Why I had to do this episode in the first place, which leads into me introducing the book The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.
• That book introduces us to cognitive distortions and the ways they are imposing themselves into our everyday lives.
• We define what a cognitive distortion is and we compare them to logical fallacies for a moment. 
• And then I introduce the 9 most common cognitive distortions that people deal with. They are: emotional reasoning, catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, dichotomous thinking, mind reading, labeling, negative filtering, discounting positive, and blaming. 
• We go into each one and I give several examples of how these distortions play out in real life. After going through this list it's no wonder we have a mental health crisis.
• Then we talk about how cognitive distortions like to work in tandem. They stack on top of each other quite well. And when you have multiple cognitive distortions going on at once then you can really find yourself in a bad place, mentally. 
• Then we talk about how to address these distortions. And let me be the first to say that the best way to address them is with professional help from a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist. But if they are minor or not impacting your life too badly then you can probably address them on your own.
• And that brings us to this weeks Call-to-Action. This week we challenge something we believe to be true because we feel it to be so. And we try to prove it true with evidence. We do this until we find one of our beliefs to not be true and we do this simply to prove that we should not accept our feelings as truths automatically and unconditionally. After we realize this it becomes easier to challenge our other distortions and reduce the mental volume across the board. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we talk all about supplements. Topics include:

• My own initial thoughts on supplements and the countless ones that exist for just as many reasons. I also share a few instances where I don't think supplements are the answer.
• I talk about the big business of supplements, which has become a hundred billion dollar industry in America alone. Add to that the fact that there's very little regulation and you're left with the wild west. For every legit company there's probably ten just trying to make a quick buck.
• I talk about unlisted ingredients and adulteration due to low standards and poor quality control within the industry. 
• Then I talk about the 4 companies that will put a seal on a supplement. These seals, however, don't indicate anything about safety or efficacy. They are just ensuring that what's on the label is what's in the bottle. That's it. And you can find those seals here. 
• Then we talk about bioavailability. This is one of those things I never hear anybody mention, but many of the ingredients in common supplements are in forms your body can't even use. So you end up paying for expensive urine.
• Next I talk about how to make the right choices for you and how to source your supplements properly. This takes a bit of legwork, but if you're going to spend your money you should be sure you're getting something for it. 
• Then I talk about my top 4 supplements that everybody can benefit from. And I go into detail about them but they are a multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D, and probiotics. And if you're going to add a 5th then I'd recommend a greens supplement.
• And then in this week's Call-to-Action I give you 6 rules/guidelines to supplements that should keep you from wasting your time and money. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice