In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom.
   Mind Pump Fit Tip: Want to alleviate cravings? Take a HIGH-QUALITY probiotic! (1:25)
   Have we traded the wisdom and behavior of psychology for science? (6:57)
   Taking the leap with your faith. (9:42)
   Vasectomies and performance anxiety with sperm donation. (21:07)
   Digital snake oil. (30:31)
   The Elon vs Zuckerburg spectacle. (36:01)
   Wild animal corner with Mind Pump. (40:09)
   The ultimate CHEESEBURGER. (46:56)
   “I’ve seen you on Vuori ads.” (49:22)
   We want to believe. (52:07)
   Shout out to Trashcan Paul. (57:14)
   #ListenerLive question #1 - Any guidance on potential nerve damage from a past injury, and why I am experiencing muscle imbalances? (57:59)
   #ListenerLive question #2 - Is my lack of progress due primarily to overtraining, low testosterone, or both? (1:11:34)
   #ListenerLive question #3 - Why can’t I seem to lean out? (1:31:24)
   #ListenerLive question #4 – Can you offer advice to build my absent bum? (1:43:00)
   Related Links/Products Mentioned
   Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: live@mindpumpmedia.com
   Visit Seed for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code MINDPUMP at checkout for 30% off your first month’s supply of Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic**
   Visit Vuori Clothing for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners!
   July Promotion: MAPS Starter | MAPS Starter Bundle 50% off! **Code JULY50 at checkout**
   Mere Christianity – Book by C.S. Lewis
    Bored Ape Yacht Club Prices Crash to Two-Year Low, Down 88%
   Elon Musk FULL INTERVIEW with ZUBY (NEW) – YouTube
   Koalas Have Human-like Fingerprints | Live Science
    Burger King Has a Meatless Burger with Just 20 Slices of Cheese
   “Utsurobune”: A UFO Legend from Nineteenth-Century Japan
   Visit Paleo Valley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code MINDPUMP15 at checkout for 15% discount**
    Mind Pump #1142: Nine Signs You Are Overtraining
    Mind Pump #2095: How To Smash Through A Strength Plateau
    Mind Pump #1785: Why Most Women Fail At Developing Their Butt
   Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code MINDPUMP at checkout**
   Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube
   Mind Pump Free Resources
   People Mentioned
   Bishop Robert Barron (@bishopbarron) Instagram
   Arthur Brooks (@arthurcbrooks) Instagram
   Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Twitter
   Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) Instagram
   Trashcan Paul (@trashcanpaul) Instagram
   Justin Brink DC (@dr.justinbrink) Instagram
   Jordan Shallow D.C (@the_muscle_doc)  Instagram
 

    

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only 1 place to go.

With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews.

You just found the world's most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast.

In today's episode, we answered live callers questions, but this was after an introductory portion today.

That's where we talk about current events, studies, family life, and much more.

You could check the show notes for timestamps.

If you just want to skip around to your favorite part.

Also, want to be on an episode like this 1?

Email your question to live at mindpumpmedia.com.

Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors.

This is the world's best probiotic hands down.

Use the code mindpump and get a discount.

This episode is also brought to you by Viore at leisure wear that looks good, feels good and lasts a long time.

You probably know about the company because they're so big now, but did you know you get 20% off?

That's V-O-R-E clothing.com forward slash mindpump.

We're also running a sale on some workout programs.

Our beginner strength training program, MAPS starter is 50% off.

And then we have a bundle that includes MAPS anabolic and MAPS prime.

If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code July50 for that discount.

Cravings, 1 of the most challenging things to deal with when you're trying to get leaner.

Well, here's something you can do to help alleviate them, or at least blunt them.

No joke, the microbes in your gut actually drive some of your cravings and healthy probiotics tend to reduce cravings for things like sugar and fast food and chemicals that produce those kind of short-term highs.

So probiotics, It's 1 of your tools in the fight against cravings.

I mean, you're the most consistent with taking seed.

Is that something that you notice as a side effect?

That's not something that I've ever paid attention to, although I've just been completely transparent.

I've never been very consistent with taking my probiotic over...

That's enough to motivate me, though, to test that to see, because I do have sugar cravings, and that's something that I've always had to work on.

I don't know if I paid attention to that, but I'm sure it plays a factor in there.

The studies on them are weird because 20 years ago, you would have never guessed that they would be connected to all these different things.

There are studies that show that probiotic administration reduces anxiety, depression, that it helps with fat loss, it helps with muscle growth, cognitive performance, sleep, skin, moods and behaviors, and including cravings.

So what's interesting is, obviously, the brain has the most serotonin receptors in the body.

So receptors where serotonin attaches to.

The second highest concentration of serotonin receptors is in the gut.

The gut actually produces a majority of serotonin.

What trips me out is nobody knew this thousands of years ago but yet they referred to knowing things in the mind, in the heart, in the gut.

It's so crazy how we totally ignore intuition now, even though there's some truth there.

But anyway, yeah, probiotics can definitely help influence you in the positive.

At the very least, if your gut health is not so great, you're just not gonna feel as good.

And this has been proven in studies many, many times that we tend to reach for foods that produce the kind of the short-term, I don't know, good feeling.

So these are usually foods that are hyper palatable, because it's not a long-term feeling you get from eating super healthy.

Excuse me, short-term feeling from eating super healthy.

The short-term comes from like eating hyper palatable.

While you're eating candy, you feel good in the moment.

And when you feel kind of crappy, those are the foods you tend to go towards.

And so probiotics for sure improve gut health.

Now, Seed, obviously the company we work with, by far the best 1 I've ever used.

There isn't 1 that I ever used that, even with the good probiotics I used in the past, after a while I'd have to switch out or go off or do something different.

Seed has been consistent every single night.

They actually, they're up for renewal and I think they wanna pick up their cadence because of how much great feedback they've gotten from our audience.

I know that we're 1 of their best partners and I know they're coming up for resigning.

I know Katrina told me that they wanna pick up the cadence because, and they're already, I think, a two-time-a-month sponsor already.

Wow, did you know probiotics also help prevent UTIs and stuff like that for women?

Yeah, natural way to help prevent, because the microbiome, obviously there's a microbiome.

It's out of balance is when that really occurs, right?

Correct, and good bacteria, think of them as soldiers that prevent bad bacteria from taking over or help promoting balance.

So when you get an infection like that, it's the imbalance of bad to good bacteria.

I keep tripping out on how much, well, obviously, bacteria, you can see how much it affects your behaviors and the way that you think and operate, and also the excess inflammation factor in the brain.

And so it's like between those 2 factors alone, I mean, obviously we talk all about the exterior things like exercise and like sleep and all, but what's going on inside your body in terms of like addressing those 2 things would be huge.

They now have connections to the gut microbiome and multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, autism.

They don't know exactly what's going on or how they could use that.

What's crazy, when we were kids, they weren't really aware of this so much.

They used to prescribe antibiotics to us like it was candy.

It hasn't even been that long actually since they've got away from that.

Now the pediatrician now is a little bit more like, let's wait this out and see what happens.

I remember when I was a kid, I just had to walk in.

Doctor, here you go, take this and you're done.

Do you think, you guys said something that made me think about, do you think we have traded the wisdom of behavior and psychology for science?

Like, do you think we were actually smarter hundreds of years ago around psychology and behavior?

And we've traded that out because we're so much smarter in science.

We traded information and knowledge and wisdom.

So we had a lot more wisdom in the past and more trust in our own intuition.

I think the combination of the 2 is always where you're gonna find the best, right?

I think that we all agree on that, that I think that instead of like, it's not an either or, it's like comparing the deadlift in the squad or like certain exercises.

It's like, why would you limit to just 1?

But to your point, I think we did throw the baby out of the bathwater.

So we did sort of abandon a lot of our intuition and listening to some of that old wisdom of to really be in tune with those signals of your body.

Yeah, and again, we're so arrogant, right?

All we've did, by the way, all we did to bring us where we are today is we discovered a tool.

And humans are, I mean, this is what we're known for.

This is what really separates us, right, from animals is we're exceptional tool makers, like exceptional.

And we figured out a tool, essentially, which is science, the scientific method, which is extremely valuable.

It's allowed us to invent and innovate at rates that are just incredible.

Obviously the way we live today versus just 200 years ago, like profound differences.

But so that makes us look back in time and think that people who existed, you know, 500 years ago, a thousand years ago, 2000, 5000 years ago, we're just stupid.

But the truth is they didn't have the same knowledge and understanding necessarily of, let's say, the material world or how things work from that, from the scientific standpoint, but they observe things and commented and recorded on them for thousands of years, thousands and thousands of years talking about human nature, human behavior.

This is why, for example, the 7 deadly sins are just as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago, even though the world's vastly different.

I think we discredit a lot of the ability that a lot of the ancients and all that had to master their crafts in certain directions because they were so focused, hyper-focused, and they could get masses of people all on board on the same exact focus to accomplish, you know, a goal together versus now we're just so fragmented and we think we know everything.

So along the lines of the 7 deadly sins, it kind of falls in the spiritual wisdom realm.

And I was going through our questions on our main IG and 1 of the most popular or most liked questions that we didn't answer we probably wouldn't answer typically we look for the most popular health and fitness questions that are answered that's how we determine like what we're gonna answer for the cause But somebody asked a personal question and I thought, okay, this is not maybe a quad type of question, but curious, and I'm curious myself, for somebody who was such a staunch atheist for so long, how did you move from that to believing in something that you believe so strongly to not be true?

That was a question asked, and a lot of people wanted to hear how you responded

So I think if you're, because I was a legit atheist.

And what I mean by that is I thought about it.

You've said something before, so I'll cut you off.

But that was actually like, never really dawned on me.

The truth behind this is that a lot of atheists are, more well-read around spirituality and religion sometimes.

Yes, because they're searching for all the holes.

And so there's a lot of times they know more than the person who's trying to defend it.

Listen, I'll make this argument that true atheism, meaning the curiosity to study and learn and discover the nature of the world and break things down.

Like you're really interested because there's people who just don't think about it.

That person is, they're just kind of, I guess, floating in whatever, right?

I feel like you fall more agnostic when you're like that.

Like, I think like a true atheist to your point is like you're in search to prove it wrong.

I think an atheist is closer to becoming a believer than the typical person who doesn't think about anything, because that's my experience.

I was constantly trying to search and learn, because just because, you know, okay, fine, I'm an atheist, I don't think God exists.

Well, I still am curious on the nature of things and what's going on.

I was always looking, meaning, and that also kind of made me open.

I moved away from that when the more that I searched, the more mysterious things seemed to be.

And then I remember I had a conversation.

Are you talking about like things like quantum physics?

Or like as the deeper you went, you realized like, oh, we actually don't have a definitive answer for this or for that.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine and he said, well, don't you feel like you're, because I said something like, oh, religious people are so arrogant.

I said, well, you know, they're sitting there telling me they know that God exists and that he's real.

I said, well, aren't you kind of the same thing?

He said, you're telling me you know for sure that God doesn't exist.

I'm like, well, the burden of proof is on the person claiming it.

He goes, okay, but still, don't you feel like you might be a little nice?

And I remember I thought about that a lot.

I was like, oh shit, like I don't know everything.

And I guess I am, that doesn't mean I think there is a God, but I guess I am being a little arrogant.

So it kind of moved me away from like this definitive, like, for sure, there's nothing to like, well, I don't know.

And then, the next thing that kind of opened my, I guess my mind to a little bit was the wisdom that was in, spiritual practices And the first thing that had, so the first thing that had me peer into that was, this is when I learned about fasting and its potential behavioral benefits.

Because back then for listeners, I mean, we've all been in fitness for 2 and a half decades.

Fasting or going without food for more than 2 or 3 hours.

And our, in our space years ago, it's like, oh, you can't do that.

It's all bullshit, but this is what we thought.

And I remembered looking into fasting and its potential behavioral benefits, trying it and realizing those benefits for someone like me who was so tied to food every 2 or 3 hours.

I'm like, oh my God, this is a practice that's been done in like pretty much every spiritual practice.

And The reason why they practice it is for the behavioral benefits that I noticed.

I'm like, I wonder what else is in the spiritual practice.

I mean, they lasted for thousands of years.

They passed the evolution of ideas, meaning an idea has to, if it lasts for thousands of years, it's because it stands the test of time.

So I said, I wonder what other wisdoms are in there.

And so then I kind of opened my mind a little bit to just the wisdom aspect of it.

Like, okay, these existed for thousands of years.

There's gotta be some spiritual truth or some wisdom.

And I felt, and this is just the best I could describe, I just felt moved and kind of connected.

And I remember I called, I contacted Arthur Brooks at the time.

And I said, this is kind of weird, but I'm having a tough time making the leap.

And he goes, well, that's where the faith comes in.

At some point you have to like, you have to decide like whether you have faith or not.

Yeah, and I said, I feel really pulled to it.

And he goes, well, once he's after you, he's after you.

And like all kinds of weird stuff kept happening.

And I mean, I just, I took the leap and then from there more things opened up and I felt a different sense of calm.

You know, there's always gonna be a leap.

And I recommend to atheists or whatever, if you're curious, C.S.

Lewis has Mere Christianity, he's a phenomenal book.

He's very analytical and he speaks to intellect.

So if that's the kind of thinker you are, at the very least it'll get you thinking.

I always love hearing how people kind of try to make sense and figure out the bigger questions and seek that out.

Because I came from the opposite experience

that, which was more like I never lost my faith, but at the same time was getting tested all the time by atheists.

And then I was trying to see if I could arm myself with better material and ask deeper questions and philosophical questions.

And I just wasn't getting that from my preachers and from church in itself.

And so I had to go a little bit further and get a little more academic with some of that materials and stuff.

And came across Science of God, which was a pretty decent book in terms of like trying to come up with some answers to some of these hard questions in terms of like, if you were to put some kind of science behind like a universal clock, like they made some bits of references of how to explain it.

Wasn't perfect, but it still gets you in that thought process of like, we don't really know everything scientifically.

We have some good thoughts, but there's just so much there that it's pretty much impossible.

Yeah, and I think it's a huge disservice to us as humans to deduce everything down to scientific explanations and chemicals.

Like you'll find people who are maybe non-believers or whatever, and then they'll have an experience like a near death experience, or their child is born, or they fall in love.

And all of a sudden, they open up to possibility that there may be a God.

And then you got people on the other end who are like, oh, that's just serotonin and dopamine and chemicals.

Like, I think that that is really, really, it's doing us a disservice to boil everything down to like, oh, it's chemicals, it's a trick, it's an illusion type of deal.

I mean, I don't know, you might think I'm wrong, but believing that loving your child is a bunch of just chemical tricks in your brain.

Doesn't that kind of like, I mean, aren't you taking the experience and, really, you know, kind of bringing it down to something that it's not.

When you experienced that, like, does that really explain it?

So it's interesting, but I do love the discussions.

And in my opinion, atheists are open for discussion.

They want to talk about this kind of stuff.

People love those series with Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and they would really just try to like hash it out.

I'm like, I just wish more people would, obviously we're so busy and consumed with our day to day, you know, survival and bills and all these kinds of things.

It's like, you know, philosophy is a lost thing.

Like we used to sit and just ponder and ask bigger questions.

It's always fun for me if people actually take the time to do that.

We've got more food and shelter and whatever, and people are like, they're more anxious and not happy.

I don't think it's like buying more shit or more drugs.

We've kind of hit that tipping point, I think.

We've got all the stuff and we got all the knowledge there.

I mean, I think in our lifetime, we'll see everybody will be able to pretty much have what they want, you know?

Yeah, like they're going to be hooked up to a machine.

2124: Reasons Why You Can’t Lose Fat In Spite of Reducing Calories, Solutions for a Butt That Won’t Grow, Signs You Are Overtraining & More (Listener Live Coaching)

See all Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth transcripts on Applepodcasts

2124: Reasons Why You Can’t Lose Fat In Spite of Reducing Calories, Solutions for a Butt That Won’t Grow, Signs You Are Overtraining & More (Listener Live Coaching)