Words of Wellness with Shelly

Unpacking the PRISE Life: Your Path to Better Health With Dr. Paul Arciero

• Shelly Jefferis

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Transforming your health isn’t just a dream; it's entirely achievable with the right information and taking the most effective action! On this enlightening episode of Words of Wellness, Shelly's guest, Dr. Paul Arciero, who is an esteemed expert in nutrition and health optimization with decades of research experience and over 70 published articles, shares his expertise and proven science that backs up the importance of nutrition and a specific routine when it comes to our exercise. Dive deep into the crisis of sedentary living and how our environment has shaped our health choices. 

Dr. Arciero reveals key insights on how to break free from aging stereotypes, demonstrating that you can, in fact, turn back the clock. Throughout decades of research, he has determined the most effective approach for health and longevity and shares it in his best seller book The PRISE Life. Dr. Arciero discusses powerful methods of protein pacing—an innovative approach that emphasizes the timing and quality of your protein intake. In addition he breaks down the most effective way to go about our exercise programs. Would it surprise you to know that we don't have to exercise 5, 6, or 7 days a week to gain the benefits we all desire?? Listen in to discover what the science and research tells us! In addition, there is an essential connection between daily  nutrition and mental clarity as we incorporate exercises tailored to build strength, flexibility, and overall well-being.

Throughout the episode, you’ll learn how to empower yourself to make changes that enhance your quality of life immensely, illustrating that you have control over your health destiny. Discover how simple lifestyle tweaks can lead to transformative shifts in your well-being. Curious to delve deeper into the science of nutrition? Tune in NOW and take the first step towards living your very best life! Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and rate this episode to support our wellness community!


CONNECT WITH DR. ARCIERO:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drpaularciero
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulArciero

https://www.amazon.com/PRISE-Life-Protein-Optimal-Performance/dp/173415893X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=OJ5PI66O3XQ9&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._6PRgresuytBi9xagtiEq9MdpqGmVJjWgUMEwkcJRezGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.p1hVjV30feAYKl20CN04GaBz6wnj0tgbPhiGaVQoSWE&dib_tag=se&keywords=Dr+Paul+Arciero&qid=1740590982&sprefix=dr+paul+arciero%2Caps%2C150&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Protein-Pacing-Diet-Paul-Arciero/dp/1478799471/ref=sr_1_2?crid=OJ5PI66O3XQ9&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._6PRgresuytBi9xagtiEq9

CONNECT WITH SHELLY:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellnesswithshellyj
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShellyNeumannJefferis

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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless!
And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!

In Health,
Shelly Jefferis

Speaker 1:

the culture and the environment in which we've created a sedentary lifestyle, an abundance of toxins in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the lotions and potions we put on ourselves, and a poor, poor, very poor nutritional landscape. We definitely don't have to age in the manner that we have been. We can definitely halt it, not stop it completely as of yet, but we can definitely slow it down drastically, dramatically.

Speaker 2:

Do you get confused by all of the information that bombard us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will. We all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today day. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Words of Wellness.

Speaker 2:

My name is Shelly Jeffries and I will be your host, and I want to introduce our guest today. He is a full professor and director of the Human Nutrition, metabolism and Performance Laboratory in the Department of Health and Human Physiological Sciences at Skidmore College and has served as a full professor in the Department of Sports Medicine, and and he is the author of Amazon's number one bestseller, the Prize Life, which you're going to hear all about today. He's amazing. I don't have really enough time to cover all of his accomplishments, but he was awarded most likely to change the world, and he is absolutely doing that. His research has been published in Nature Communications, obesity Journal, journal of Applied Physiology, american Journal of Preventative Medicine, and the list goes on and on. And he has completed over 30 years of research in the area of protein metabolism and performance, and he has well over 70 published articles. And I just can't say enough amazing things about Dr Paul Arciero. Thank you for being here.

Speaker 1:

That was great, shelly, thanks for having me. I'm excited. Yeah, let's dive in. We have some fun topics to talk about and, yeah, I'm really grateful that you've asked me to join.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. And for our listeners who might be new to the podcast, dr Paul was very gracious and was a guest last year probably around the same time, maybe a little bit later into the year and he, as you will hear, just is a wealth of knowledge. And the great thing too about Dr Paul, I can say because I know him as a friend he is just a very easygoing person, easy to talk to and really cares about his work and cares about all of you, and that's one of the biggest things that I love about him. He is doing so much for good in this world to help us all live healthier lives, and that's what this is all about. Right, Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, that's a really good starting point. Thanks to you for those kind words as a story that you've heard before. You know, for me it was an early life introduction, or, I guess, sensitivity to my paternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather and, you know, as a young little boy maybe six, seven, eight years old you know, some of my earliest childhood memories were just the joy and the love that I had for them and when they became sick and ill, I just it broke my heart, it really hit me in my heartstrings there. And so, yeah, at an early age I just knew I wanted to go into something in life with a purpose of helping other people, especially as we continue on in this journey of life, to live as healthy and as productive and engaged and present as we can with those that we love. So, yeah, those are really words that ring true to me and so I really appreciate you recognizing that that's my purpose.

Speaker 2:

Well, and I think it rings true because it's something that I've shared through the years with my students and clients as well, and so I just really appreciate that so much about you, because I have the same attitude and approach nowhere near to what you have accomplished approach nowhere near to what you have accomplished.

Speaker 2:

However, I have the same values in that area, and part of the big reason I started my podcast was to bring people like yourself to share with the world, to help everyone live quality of life, rather than just living, but have that quality of life, that vitality that we also deserve and I know you talk about that so much and I really appreciate that is it's not just living till we're 80, 90, maybe 100, but it's actually living and feeling good and having energy and having that zest for life. And I think that's so huge and such an important point for people to hear, because I you hear it too I'm sure that sometimes I feel like people kind of give up or they just go oh, I'm just old, or this is just happens. Oh gosh, you know it's. It stinks to get old, you know, and I, I just when I hear that, or if I hear that anyone close to me, I say you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's hard to you know, turn that volume down on the world when it comes to aging, because I think so many people have just accepted it as the natural time course of our time here on Earth, and there's some degree of truth to that. I mean, you know, we all have the aging process taking place to some degree, but there's no doubt we have accelerated that aging process exponentially over the last several decades, you know just, by sheer virtue of the culture and the environment in which we've created a sedentary lifestyle, an abundance of toxins in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the lotions and potions we put on ourselves, and a poor, poor, very poor nutritional landscape. You know just, we have a very poor nutritional way of eating. And so those three factors right there sedentary toxins and just living, a really consuming a really unhealthy diet have accelerated the aging process. But, shelly, the truth of the matter is we definitely don't have to age in the manner that we have been. We can definitely halt it, not stop it completely as of yet, but we can definitely slow it down drastically, dramatically. And that's really what I'm on the mission, and you are too, so thank you for the work that you do.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, the prize life you know was written for that purpose to get people back on track of living a life that allows them to revisit their youthful years, and there's truth to that.

Speaker 1:

We can turn back the clock, there's no doubt, and we've seen it time and time again with people of all ages. They can turn the clock of time back in terms of living more youthful and healthy and energized and with vitality. Are some definite, easy, very easy, low-hanging lifestyle strategies that we can all incorporate that will make an immediate difference, and when I say immediate, I'm speaking hours, and we know this scientifically. You can make change to your overall health and the way your cells respond to your lifestyle within hours, and then sometimes it doesn't actually reveal itself, maybe with the way you look or the way you know your muscles and your face and your skin health, um, but definitely in how your joints are feeling and how your body is beginning to metabolize things differently. Those things happen within hours and people need to know that. So maybe sometimes, just because you don't see it outwardly, these changes are taking place inwardly and then eventually, when they start to appear outwardly, you know that's the best of everything.

Speaker 2:

It reminds me and I so appreciate you sharing that, because our bodies are miracles for sure and it reminds me when I would at lecture and I was teaching health at the college and sharing about when someone would quit smoking, how quickly the body starts to repair itself, I mean, and there was this whole timeline of different things that would happen at different stages and it was remarkable and I remember loving, I loved sharing that with my students so that they can understand how quickly your body can actually repair itself when you do the proper things.

Speaker 2:

And I think the other thing that you bring to mind is the steps that we can take. I always kind of felt like I was pretty energetic and healthy until I made a big adjustment in my whole nutrition, introduced the cellular cleansing component and did that over 10 years ago, and that just completely changed my whole way of thinking. And I think that's the other part of this too right, that we don't really understand or know how great we can feel or how much better we can feel. And even from someone who I thought I was feeling pretty good, I went, oh gosh, no, like I get like 10 times better and didn't even realize it, you know, until I made some changes, and so that's that's exciting.

Speaker 1:

Oh gosh, it is really exciting. Yeah, sometimes it's a matter of just how you feel. I mean, I know, look and appearance ranks really high, but in most cases for people, you know, when they have that overwhelming feeling of more energy, more clarity of thought, you know, the ability to get up and go, to stay engaged cognitively, have greater emotional psychological stability, being able to recover, you know, after days of stress Maybe it's, you know, driving for an extended period of time or traveling in an airplane, or exerting themselves physically or being around a stressful environment of some type, they can rebound. They have that what we call resilience. So, yeah, all of these things really manifest to the top in people's lives, and so everything you're describing is exactly what happens when we change even just one lifestyle strategy.

Speaker 1:

Nutrition is the most potent there's no doubt about it If you want to have the greatest impact. I know people refer to exercise and I have degrees in exercise physiology, so I'm a huge proponent of exercise, but it really is a distant second when it comes to the greatest lifestyle strategy that we can do to impact our health at the highest level, and that's nutrition. What we put into our bodies, without any question, is number one, and anyone that deals with health at all different levels would not argue that. But unfortunately a lot of people who are in the healthcare field don't recognize the importance of nutrition as being the number one, most powerful and potent lifestyle strategy, which is unfortunate because it's been kind of pushed to the side and exercise comes to the top, pharmaceutical drug interventions come to the top, other medical interventions so those are all you know have their place, but nutrition without question is the top priority.

Speaker 2:

But nutrition without question is the top priority. It's interesting because I just did a podcast with a gal who's a family practitioner and she was talking about that, which is something that I knew about because of people like yourself sharing that. But she was talking about not having that training and that education in the area of nutrition, and many times the doctors have to go out on their own and gain that education and that's something that I learned quite a few years ago. Just the fact that it's so limited in their training, if at all, and I think that's such an important point. And that's not I feel like it's not a bash on doctors, it's not their fault, it's just how the system is right, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

You can't be everything to everyone and you can only have so much of a bandwidth. And doctors, you know, truth be told, are taught to treat, not to prevent. That's not what a medical doctor is in school for the prevention. So they don't have the prevention training, which is what nutrition is. It's the the prevention, so they don't have the prevention training, which is what nutrition is. It's the cure, and so medical doctors and healthcare are in the profession of the treatment. That's what they do. It's medicine, and so medicines treat. So, yeah, it's not their fault, it's just the line of work and profession vocation that they've gone into.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so there's a time and place and definite necessity to have people that have studied and learned and educated themselves in the prevention of disease and the optimization of health, and that's really important.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's kind of three stages of our health. One is to treat when a disease has occurred, and that's what the medical healthcare profession, nurses and doctors do, so they treat when something has gone awry. And then there's the whole concept of, you know, preventing disease, and that's super important. There's trained people that are in the field of helping people live lives, of preventing the onset of disease or minimizing the onset of disease. And then there are those that are actually in the field and in the study of optimizing health, and that's a much different area all itself, and so that's the world that I live in. I live in the world of optimizing health, so I don't specialize in the treatment. That's left for medical doctors. I don't deal with necessarily the training that I've had and the interaction with clients and patients and other people along the way, teams and various groups of the population. It's about optimizing health, and so that, to me, is where the real Holy grail lies of what we can provide to people.

Speaker 2:

A hundred percent. Yeah, I completely agree. So along those lines, can you share? You were talking earlier about the low hanging fruit and I would love to have you share with our audience what those are and then maybe touch a little bit upon protein and protein pacing, as that's your, that's your specialty and you've done research in that area, so I'd love for you to share a little bit on that.

Speaker 1:

Excellent, yeah, we can go right in. So, yeah, the lowest hanging fruit to me are the lifestyle strategies that people can engage in on a moment by moment basis during the day, and they involve a lot of what we've already talked about Choosing the healthiest options of nourishing your body, first and foremost, at the right times during the day. So choosing the right quality of those nutrients at the right time during the day and in the right amounts, and then engaging in healthy levels of human movement. We can refer to it as exercise, physical activity, but it's yeah, it's just moving the body in a way that really optimizes its health. In fact, it was just another study that came out that showed that.

Speaker 1:

You know, resistance training is super valuable for us. Endurance exercise, aerobic exercise, is really really helpful, but two other forms that oftentimes are neglected, although they're starting to gain a little bit more prominence, but they're also vital are high intensity intervals anaerobic type exercise, we refer to it and then stretching, flexibility, mobility. So it's all right here. So the lowest hanging fruit is what I use as my slogan, and that is keep your eyes on the prize. That's the prize.

Speaker 2:

But it's prize spelled with an S Prize. Prize, but it's prize spelled with an S. Yes, for our listeners. Dr Paul has written two amazing books and I will be sure and add them in the show notes so you can get a hold of them, because his work is amazing and he's sharing about prize. So, yes, I know about it, but you want to share what the prize stands for.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So the P stands for nutrition, so it's all in order of kind of value that it provides us in terms of our overall health. So all of them are very important to PRISC. It's a five acronym word prize and all of them are important, but starting with the P, that's nutrition.

Speaker 1:

The P stands for protein pacing, so it's what I've created and developed over the last three to five decades of my research. I've been at it that long Well, not five, but I've been on the planet for six decades. But I've been actually actively studying this as a career, profession, vocation for 39 years, so almost four decades. And what I've shown that's consistently risen to the top is when we start our day and end our day and start our meals, each time we consume something in any food source with the highest quality protein, that usually always brings us the greatest health return on that investment of eating. So protein pacing is all about just beginning your day and ending it. So bookends we call it so when you think of bookends on a bookcase, that hold the books up so that they don't flop over. The bookends of protein pacing at the beginning and end of the day is actually paramount. It's critical, it's a necessity to optimizing our health, and then every four hours in between those bookends is super valuable to us in terms of providing us optimal health at a very high level, and so the quality is priority number one, shelley, and it's about obtaining the highest quality protein. And we know, through lots of really exceptional research that's been conducted by the finest scientists in the world, that undenatured whey protein is the highest quality source of protein that we can consume. It's what is most bioavailable to the cells of our body. So when we consume undenatured, especially grass-fed whey protein from cows that have been roaming on grass out in nature, free of any pesticides, herbicides and other harmful substances and materials, they're the highest quality source of protein that we can obtain. So undernatured grass-fed whey protein is number one. And then things like pasture-raised eggs and grass-fed beef and grass-fed dairy in the form of milk and yogurt and things like that. And then wild-caught fish is also of very high quality. Free-roaming other forms of animal would be really outstanding as well. And then high quality protein sources.

Speaker 1:

The challenge with protein is that in order to get the essential amino acids that are naturally occurring in animal foods animal products you need to combine different plant sources. So you need to combine different things like legumes and nuts and seeds and other grains to complement each other. That's what the word means complementarity of plant-based food sources. They need to complement each other to make sure that you have all of the essential amino acids contained within that. So you can't just eat one form of a plant to get all the essential amino acids to form a protein. It's just impossible. There's no good source of plant-based food that can do it alone. There are some that can come close, but none of them that compare to what we obtain with animals. So you need to combine them. So that's the starting point. And then lots of fresh fruits and vegetables are obviously extremely important, and then whole grains and things like that.

Speaker 1:

So really staying away from the SAD diet that's the standard American diet of ultra, with simple sugars, highly refined grains that's relatively low hanging could be expensive. My students this, in fact. I was at the dentist the other day and the dental hygienist said oh, you're in nutrition, I heard, and healthy, really cheaply. And I said oh, give me an example. Oh well, I mean I go to McDonald's for lunch and I get a burger and fries for you know $5 and you know change. And I said oh well, do you know that? You know, for that amount of money, and sometimes even less, you can consume the highest quality nutrition on the planet with undenied grass-fed whey protein? She says what I said absolutely you can obtain the highest quality source of eating for less than that. So you know, it's just a matter of educating people. People still believe that to eat healthy it's really expensive, and it can be, but you can also be a sleuth and learn, like you were doing right now, to eat super, super healthy very cost effectively. So I'll leave it at that. And then another form of the nutrition is something that I call intermittent nutritional fasting, and it's about, you know, reducing the amount of calories you're consuming over a 24 to 48 hour period, but using some really high nutrient dense plant substances and chemicals phyto we call them phytochemicals and they're in the form of what we call antioxidants and adaptogens, and they have been tested over time to interact with the cells of our body at the highest level, because our bodies naturally cleanse itself.

Speaker 1:

We have a natural detoxification, cleansing system in our body. I don't know if you want to use the word cleansing, but a detoxification process. It's natural. It's called autophagy and mitophagy. We have something called apoptosis.

Speaker 1:

So these are all just fancy science terms for the body removing unwanted old terms for the body, removing unwanted old, non-functioning parts of cells or total cells themselves that aren't serving the body anymore. Because we know that when cells hang around for a long time inside the body they become senescent cells or seno. You know, yeah, senescent cells, cells that have aged beyond their time. That's healthy for the body. They end up turning on other cellular processes and pathways that form new cells and they become what we call undifferentiated cells, and that's what leads to cancer. They create inflammatory substances. So we don't want to have that stuff hanging around.

Speaker 1:

So when we undergo a period of low calorie intake in a fasting type fashion, that activates those processes at a higher level, and the body does that naturally. But if you can also superimpose upon those processes of autophagy, which is, you know, vacuuming the body, or apoptosis, which is actually removing out of the body old cells that you know have lived their lifespan and we need to get rid of them, and you and you superimpose upon those two processes some other healthy, nourishing, rejuvenating pathways through antioxidant and adaptogen plant-based sources, it is a grand slam. It's not just a home run, but it's literally a grand slam for us. So that combination of protein pacing and nutritional fasting takes our health to just a whole nother level. It's insane, really, in terms of the potential that we have that we don't really know we have inside of us in terms of feeling better and activating all of these really youthful processes that have been asleep for a long period of time. So those two strategies alone will take your health to a whole nother stratosphere of health protein pacing and nutritional fasting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that would be my starting point. Yeah, for sure, and I can speak from experience because that's what I've been doing now for over 10 years and incorporating, a little bit more recently, the protein pacing, little bit more recently, the protein pacing. But I was blown away I still am when I go through the nutritionally supported intermittent fast like you're referring to, and again, it's something I had not been introduced to until about 10 years ago and it's been like you're saying. It's been a game changer for sure In so many ways.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, yeah, just it helps augment, augment and facilitate our body's natural you know detoxification, anti-inflammatory, immune boosting, protein synthesis, you know recovery pathways that's what it does. Those you know four things that I just labeled are pathways. That's what it does. Those four things that I just labeled are the destroyers of our health. And when we undergo protein pacing and nutritional fasting, those four processes in the body that lead to a youthful existence on earth are just supercharged. So, yeah, it takes us to a whole nother level. And then, to finish up, the other four remaining components of the prize life are the human movement component. And just to summarize them very, very quickly, the R stands for resistance training. It's what most people refer to as strength training. But we really want to use the word resistance because when we use resistance training, we can incorporate not just muscular strength, which is strength training, but also muscular power and muscular endurance. And so when we do resistance training properly, with functional movement patterns, we actually activate those three components of muscular function. Because if you're just doing strength training, you're only getting your muscles stronger, and that's important, no doubt, but it's somewhat limited in its ability to really prefer the greatest health benefit. We also want to do resistance training that results in muscular power, our ability to exert strength in a very short period of time. So it's the rate, the speed at which we're exerting strength that's actually more important for our overall health muscle power and then muscle endurance, the ability to sustain it. If you're just going to the gym and doing strength training, you're not going to really be activating muscular power or muscular endurance, and that's a shame to not have those two things of benefit as well. So I talk about that in great length with the R and then the I is intervals. It's kind of that high intensity anaerobic movement that we do where we're out of breath completely, and people say, oh, that's only for athletes or that's only for really fit people, and nothing is further from the truth. We do we're now doing in the healthcare profession, based on the science now that myself and other scientists have conducted shown that even in people that have just suffered a heart attack or who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease so they have really limited lung capacity or people who have type 2 diabetes I mean people on the far end of the health spectrum, of poor health when they engage in high-intensity interval exercise, their health response in terms of benefit is goes off the charts. They become much, much healthier, much, much quicker.

Speaker 1:

Now you don't do it often, you only need to do these things once a week. So the resistance and intervals, you know, one day each a week is sufficient. I know people are like, oh, that doesn't make sense, but absolutely it does. We have tons of science to show that if you engage in a full body resistance training program in the right way that I described, with muscular power, strength and endurance, one day a week is all you need. When you do just one day a week of high intensity interval training, that's all you need to derive the greatest health benefit from it. Because it's very taxing. And so, yeah, I've been giving this, you know, for you know over four decades of time, energy, effort and science and research that I've been publishing to come up with this, so it hasn't been just an overnight, you know, flash in the pan. You know wonder it's been. You know four plus decades of lots of really high level scientific research.

Speaker 1:

You know the other benefit of the aerobic exercise is people think it has to be running or sprinting, you know, or cycling at the fastest level, and that's not true at all for an elite athlete or for a very, very highly trained person, yes, they will be running or sprinting or cycling really fast or swimming, you know, really fast. But for the average person it could be just a fast walk that puts you out of breath, and it only has to be for a very short period of time, somewhere between 15 seconds to 60 seconds. That's enough to induce this very significant health benefit. So I just want to put that out there for people, that it doesn't have to be actual running. We have some study participants and clients that we work with that simply just walk a little bit faster and for them it's not a fast walk. It would be the equivalent of a Sunday stroll for some people, but for them it puts them out of breath and it puts them in an anaerobic state. They derive massive benefit from that. Wheelchair-bound people, people that don't have the capacity to move their legs we have them do upper body interval type exercise to put them out of breath and the benefit that they derive from that is exponential in terms of health improvement.

Speaker 1:

The S is for stretching and most people just think it's some, you know an afterthought before they exercise or after they exercise, they do their. You know three to five minutes of their stretching. No, it's actually a designated, very, very deliberate movement experience of, you know, 45 minutes to over an hour of just full body rhythmical stretching and holding a pose, such as what you would do with yoga or certain Pilates movements and or Tai Chi, more of a fluid vinyasa movement. So it can be a Nashtanga, which is a form of yoga that's more power and longer holding poses, or it can be more of a free flowing type of yoga routine or just a simple stretching routine. So it really, you know, the vinyasa yoga would be more of that free flowing, but it's something that is incorporating muscle flexibility, shelley. So it's it's lengthening the muscles themselves and the tendons, but it's also increasing the range of motion of our joints. So it's mobility, joint mobility. So it's flexibility and joint mobility that are really the key components to this stretching component of the prize.

Speaker 1:

And then the E is the endurance or the cardiovascular aerobics. It would be a walk outside in nature. It could be a hike. It could be a bike ride. It could be a swim in nature. It could be a hike, it could be a bike ride, it could be a swim, nice and easy. It could be an elliptical exercise routine, rollerblading, anything that you're doing at a relatively low intensity not very, but relatively low intensity for an extended period of time and it's super valuable for your brain health. So all of those have a very specific purpose. So the resistance, of course, is to keep our muscles healthy and strong and lean and functional. That's what the resistance training does, but it also helps increase fat burning.

Speaker 1:

The high intensity intervals is the number one way to improve your cardiovascular health but then also transition you into what we call metabolic flexibility. It's the ability of our bodies to change the fuel source that it's burning and in this case it changes from carbohydrates use to fat use. We want to burn more of our body fat stores and that's what the high intensity intervals do. So it's number one for metabolic health, helps reduce our risk for cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease, along with helping transition us into a much healthier metabolic fuel burning stage. So those first two resistance and interval super, super beneficial for your body composition and your metabolic cardiovascular health.

Speaker 1:

Stretching is one of the best for your joint health, but it's also been proven very good for our feel good brain hormones. So when we engage in a stretching routine, you're increasing muscle flexibility, joint mobility and you're really benefiting your body's ability to move through a healthy range of motion, which is compromised as we age and sit most of the day, so it's the best way that we can keep our muscles and our joints healthy. But then the other added benefit that we get from it is an improvement in our mood state. Our endurance exercise. Many people look to that or use that as the best form of losing some weight or changing our body composition, and actually it's the least effective of all of them. So of all of those other forms resistance, interval and stretching endurance is the least you know beneficial for that. Yeah, you can burn some calories, but it's not going to really help you with metabolic flexibility or nutrient partitioning. You know the choosing of which nutrients the body should be burning at the appropriate time, of which nutrients the body should be burning at the appropriate time.

Speaker 1:

We need to be better educated that endurance, cardiovascular aerobic exercise is the best for helping relax our blood vessels, so it helps us lower our blood pressure. It helps improve our stress level, so it reduces our stress level. And then it's been proven to also boost our brain neurochemistry and putting us in a happier more, what we call I'm drawing a blank on the term, but euphoric state of being. So if we want to get into that better mood state, endurance is best for that. So we have to get people away from using endurance as a way to lose weight, lose body fat and change our body composition. It's not going to be the best for your body composition. In fact it's the fourth best way to help with our body composition.

Speaker 1:

Resistance interval and stretching are better in those ways. So that's the RISE together. But the RISE R-I-S-E which I love, by the way is the movement, and then the one final one. That's not is not necessarily part of the acronym itself, but what we talk about extensively I have a whole chapter devoted to it is mindfulness and that ability to just put us in a better frame of mind overall, making us more harmonious with our environment, with our internal and external interaction with the world, and that can be served through a spiritual means, through prayer, or through various mindfulness awareness, meditation practices. But that's that encompasses the prize life in a nutshell.

Speaker 2:

It's so. I love how you share everything so clearly, like you're giving such great detail, but in a very digestible way, and I think it's so important for listeners to really really take this to heart because, especially for those of us who are a little bit older, it goes against what we were originally taught, right? We were originally taught endurance, or running or walking burns the fat, does this, does that, and even though there's still numerous health benefits, it's not what we first learned many, many years ago. And so I find it exciting I love to run and I just enjoy it because it's like my quiet time and my meditation time in a way but I think it's so important and very exciting for everyone and listeners to to really take this in and realize that you can break your exercise routine up and you don't have to spend hours in the gym and you don't have to exercise seven days a week to get the benefits that your body and your brain need, and I think that that is huge.

Speaker 2:

And, like you're saying, this isn't just a fly by night, overnight research that you just discovered. This is something you've spent tons of time and effort and research on, so there's no guessing. There's no, there's no guesswork about it. It's, it's done. I mean, you've researched it and and and this is what we know to be fact, and I think that also is very exciting and also, I think, helps people to know that there's not any like, well, what about this? Or what? If I mean, you just spelled it out, you've done the research, you just spelled it out for us, right.

Speaker 1:

It's all follow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great, shelley. No, that's a really good way to put it. And people often say well, if you're an athlete, you can't do those four forms of training and still excel. And the truth of the matter is I don't know an athlete who walks this planet that is not doing those four different types. Now, do they specialize in their specific sport? We call it specificity? Of course they do. You know, if they're a baseball player, as you know very well, they're doing a lot of explosive type training, a lot of eye hand agility. But are they stretching, oh my Lord. Are they stretching? Oh my Lord? I mean, you know, baseball players are some of the most joint, mobile and flexible athletes that walk the planet, at the same time of having the most explosive muscular power. So are they doing high intensity intervals? Of course they are. Are they going to the gym and doing resistance training? Of course they are. So they're doing it all. Are they taking time in recovery days to do some low-level endurance exercise to kind of help them remove some waste products and soreness that they might be feeling? Of course they do.

Speaker 1:

So I hear this all the time from people saying oh, you know, prize isn't for people who are really super fit. I hear it from the other end of the spectrum, from people saying, oh, that's only for really highly super fit people. So, yeah, it's a, it's a funny thing. But, like you just said, there's no athlete that lives in a vacuum of only doing their sport. And I give the examples of a marathon runner. You know people say, oh, marathon runner wouldn't benefit from resistance training and stretching and high intensity intervals. All they want to do is endurance. And I say you haven't spoken to a marathon runner? Then you know, I've trained with them, I've consulted with you know top tiered endurance athletes and oh my gosh, you know of course they spend time in the gym doing muscular resistance training for power, endurance and strength. I mean that would be silly for a marathon runner not to have that strength. Of course they're going to a track and doing intervals. You know if they have to surge at a particular point in a race, you know to get away from the competition they need to have their sprint legs and they need to call on those intervals that they did during their you know training. The amount of time that marathon runners, as athletes, spend with strength, stretching and flexibility and joint mobility to prevent overuse injuries is unbelievable. So anyway, I just have to put this reference to people because they lose perspective. They think you know certain ways of exercising are the only way. You know there's lots of. I could name a bunch of them that I'm sure many people listening know about.

Speaker 1:

But the reality of it is we are a multidimensional, multimodal organism. Humans are and we need to move in those four different ways of resistance, interval, stretching and endurance in order to have maximal benefit. And, like you said, you don't need to do it five, six, seven days a week. If you want to, just for you know, psychological mood boosting benefit, you know that's okay. You can go out for walks and I'm a huge believer in walking every day, somewhere between four to 7,000 steps a day. If you can get in 10, you don't need to. There's no proven scientific benefit above you know that. Four to 7,000, sweet spot. But if you want to do the walking every day, or people who like to go out and jog, I mean that's fine. But you know, over time, without doing those other forms of movement, you're going to be at risk for disease.

Speaker 1:

And we see that in people who have devoted their lives to just doing resistance right, more typical gym goers who just go to the gym and want to strengthen, lift weights. They end up getting hurt. They end up having joint issues. They end up, you know, sacrificing some other form of their health. So none of those things in a vacuum. I've seen it with people who have just practiced yoga yoga you know, who have become yogis, and that's all they do. You know, sometimes that can be too stressful on the joints. Sometimes they don't have that additional muscle mass that they need from the resistance and the high intensity intervals as they've aged. So at some point it will catch up to you if all you're doing is just one or two of those forms of exercise.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to be on together and to let all of you know that are listening that there's a better way to do things.

Speaker 1:

And, like you said, it's been four decades of very high level, committed and dedicated scientific research with literally now tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of participants of some way that have been now taking part in this movement. And, yeah, hopefully it's going to trickle to the rest of the population because we definitely need to do something. We're definitely being misinformed, misguided and misled into thinking what we should be doing from a nutrition and a human movement, exercise, physical activity standpoint. It's not working, and so this is a sensible way to do it. It's four days only. It gives you three days to, you know, relax, recover, rejuvenate, spend time with your family, go out on, you know, some enjoyable walks. But this is, you know, this is the answer and the solution to the pandemic that we have right now with disease and unhealth. And so, yeah, hopefully this will get into the minds and the eyes of a lot of people so that we can help them.

Speaker 2:

I certainly hope so, because you're absolutely right. What we've been doing is definitely it's not working, and it's so. I know, know you probably feel this too. It's almost like we know more now, we've learned more and there's a little more awareness around what to do to be healthy, but yet we're sicker as a nation, and so obviously, what that has looked like and what we have done through all these past years has not worked, and so, yes, it's definitely.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I am fired up to continue to share your work and to share this message and to get this podcast out to my listeners, and I just hope that those of you who are listening will take this again to heart and share this with anyone and everyone that you know, because, like Dr Paul is saying, this is applicable to everyone, whether you're an elite athlete or you're just starting to get back into exercise or maybe you're recovering from being ill like that's just amazing when you're talking about heart patients or you know diabetics that can do this workout they, they just do it at a different level, and that's what's so exciting that this, you simplify it. You know, you just simplify it for us, and I think that's just huge and we've needed this for decades.

Speaker 1:

Really, absolutely, absolutely, shelly. No, and I'm happy to help and I'm so grateful for you and what you do on a regular basis. You know, in the trenches with so many people, and so I'm always here to help you and support you and what you do on a regular basis. You know, in the trenches with so many people, and so I'm always here to help you and support you and and just know, yeah, it all starts with our nourishment. You know, in order for us to get the most out of these human movement experiences and even these other forms of mindfulness and mental health well-being, it really begins with our nutrition, and so making sure that we have someone like you who can help people incorporating and start to practice those healthy eating and nutrition behaviors is the starting point. That's why the P is there. So, yeah, I'm always here to support you and thanks for all that you do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you so much, dr Paul, and I just also want to just let all the listeners know that everything that Dr Paul has shared and when he's talking about nutrition it is, it is what I have incorporated through over a decade, so please feel free to reach out to me in that regard.

Speaker 2:

I'm happy to share with you what I have put into place for for over 10 years that has has made such such a difference, and again, that's from someone coming from a you know kinesiology and you know exercise and fitness and nutrition background to to make these changes it it was it just changed everything, and so thank you again for sharing all of this and I will put Dr Paul's contact information in the show notes. I will definitely add his books and I highly encourage all of you to to purchase his books. He has the prize life, he has the protein pacing diet and they're amazing. And again, you hear him speaking and he does share everything so incredibly clearly and just really gets down to the facts of the matter, which is really really appreciated, and I guess just any last minute words of advice or inspiration you want to share with our listeners. You've shared so much today and I appreciate you being on so much.

Speaker 1:

Well, like I said, thanks again for having me, and you know as much as we can engage with life out in nature, that's always a really helpful reminder. I need to be reminded I'm currently in the Northeast right now, and for eight months out of the year it's pretty dark and cold, but I'll tell you what a difference it makes. And so, yeah, as much as you can and I do do this in the book I talk about the value of doing these movement experiences out in nature. So I guess that would be my final. You know it keeps us connected to the world and the earth, and that would, that would be my final sign off here for you is just to try to, you know, be out in nature as you're moving your body and nourishing your body as much as possible.

Speaker 2:

Well, and I love that. I think that's a great place to to to end, because it ties into when you're making reference to mindfulness and it's just that's such a big piece that's so important in being present and being still and having just that, like you're saying, that time out with nature is it just has so many benefits, physically and mentally, which is so important.

Speaker 1:

Agreed. Thanks, shelly, for having me.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, dr Paul. You're the best. I hope I get to see you soon. I don't know if I might not see you until August, but I hope I get to see you soon. I don't know if I might not see you until August, but I hope I can see you before then. But in the meantime, thank you so much for being on. Thank you so much for all that you do. I appreciate you more than you know, and you know to the listeners again seek out Dr Paul he's he's incredible, as you have heard, and, as always, take some time out for yourself and your wellness on this day. Go out for a walk, like dr paul said, get some fresh air, be out in nature and have a beautiful, blessed rest of your week. Everyone, see you next time.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review words of wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. Thank you.