[Transcript] – The #1 Exercise For Low Back Pain, 4 Must-Do Exercises, Biohacking Late Night & Shift Work, Keto To Carnivore Transition & Much More With “The Chosen” Creator Dallas Jenkins,

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Transcripts

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/dallas-jenkins/ 

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:55] Podcast Sponsors

[00:05:39] Guest Intro

[00:08:54] Dallas Jenkin's morning routine

[00:18:29] Taking care of your feet and backward walking

[00:29:11] How to get through a sleep-deprived day and late-night work

[00:43:51] The use of nootropics, smart drugs and wakefulness promoting agents

[00:44:58] Podcast Sponsors

[00:47:52] How to focus and not get easily distracted?

[00:54:41] Transition from Keto to Carnivore diet

[01:10:41] Ben's stand on vegetables

[01:15:59] Dallas Jenkin's travels to Israel and Middle East

[01:21:30] “The Chosen” TV Series

[01:24:57] Closing the Podcast

[01:25:40] Elements of Vitality

[01:29:18] End of Podcast

Ben:  My name is Ben Greenfield. And, on this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life podcast.

Dallas:  I feel fantastic. I mean 47 years old, skin, joints, I mean, I have no pain, no inflammation or anything like that. I don't think I'm ever going to go full carnivore, but it was good for me to eliminate everything else and figure out as I brought back in fruit going, “Okay, it looks like I'm responding pretty well to fruit.” I'm still back and forth. I'm curious where you stand on vegetables because some of the things that I'm hearing that are against vegetables are compelling, but yet, I know that 95% of medical community and science community thinks vegetables are the greatest.

Faith, family, fitness, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and a whole lot more. Welcome to the show.

Well, howdy, howdy, ho. My apologies if my audio sounds a little funky or different. I happen to be on the road. I've been hunting in Hawaii, but I have some great, great stuff to get out to you. 

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Alright, folks. So, last year even though I don't wash that much TV, barely any TV at all, my sons convinced me to sit down with them and watch this TV series that they seemed to kind of addicted to at the moment. It was called “The Chosen.” I actually really watched nearly the entire first season of this show with them and it's basically the story of Jesus and Jesus's disciples, but it's told in this really, really compelling and entertaining manner just getting into how Jesus reaches out to people with all of his miracles and his ministry through the world but it's funny and it's humorous and it's joyful and it's personable. And, I kind of enjoyed it so much I wound up talking with a few friends about it. And, one of my friends mentioned to me that he actually knew the creator of the project, a guy named Dallas Jenkins and it turns out that Dallas is actually in addition to being the man behind this series, “The Chosen” into fitness and recovery and mind-body connection, biohacking. And so, after a few brief exchanges on text messages and email, I decided that it would be really interesting to get Dallas on the show and kind of hear a little bit about how a guy like him in the filmmaking industry is taking care of himself and a lot of things he's learned along the way in terms of life hacking and biohacking. And, he just seemed like a really interesting guy.

Now, the other thing that you might find interesting about him is if you're a Christian or have been associated or interested in the Christian entertainment industry for any amount of time, Dallas is the son of the guy who wrote the “Left Behind” series, author Jerry Jenkins. And, Dallas produced his first independent feature called “Hometown Legend” when he was 25. And, that got distributed by Warner Brothers. And, since then for the past 20 years, he has produced dozens of feature and short films for companies like Universal and Lionsgate and Hallmark Channel and Amazon. And, this latest project “The Chosen,” which you should check out, by the way, you might not be a Christian if you're listening in but I honestly think that it's just a really, really great show either way. Whether or not you're interested in Jesus, you probably will be after you watch it. It's actually the largest crowdfunded media project of all time and is now a multi-season series even though Dallas don't kill me but I have yet to even get into season two just because I watch TV so infrequently. But man, the first season was really good and it's going to be fun to have you on the show, man.

Dallas:  Oh, I'm so thrilled. I got really nerdy when our mutual friend David told me you liked the show and he's like, “You guys should talk.” And, I got totally into your podcast. I've got your sleeping pills or whatever you call, the Kion thing. We'll talk about that at some point because I have some questions about it. But I mean, yeah, it's just been so fun. So yeah, this is like a dream. My wife is teasing me about coming on the show.

Ben:  It's always fun to interview a podcast guest who may or may not have an NAD suppository up their butt. So, we don't have to go there though.

So actually, I am curious though just so I can kind of get a little bit of a flavor of the type of stuff you get up to, we're doing this interview mid-morning, my time, you're down in Texas, so probably closer to noon your time. What's a typical kind of morning look like for you if there is a typical morning as far as the type of must-dos or real non-negotiables for you particularly in the health morning routine type of a sector?

Dallas:  Yeah. So, my days change quite frequently, but you asked a good question, which is what are my non-negotiable. So, when I'm filming, which is the most insane of my life, that's where 80 days, five days a week over the course of multiple months, I'm doing 14-hour days most of which is spent on the set. And so, some of those days start at 6:00 in the morning, some of them start at 4:00 in the afternoon. I'm a night guy. Most of my writing and editing and stuff is done 11:00 to 4:00 in the morning. I'm a big night owl, but sometimes I can't afford to be. So, no matter what, every morning when I wake up, first thing I do is I'll usually drink something because I'm kind of keto-ish carnivore-ish, actually as we talk I'm in the middle of a transition, but I always start my morning with some sort of drink of some apple cider vinegar and some lemon juice and salt and cream of tartar for potassium and whatnot, usually some sort of mix. And then, I get my cold tank. So, I've got a RENU cold tank. R-E-N-U is the name of their company and they're great.

Ben:  R-E-N-U? 

Dallas:  Yeah.

Ben:  Okay.

Dallas:  RENU. And, I did a lot of research on cold tanks and they're seems to be the best combination of practicality and ease of use but also working really well. I mean, their chiller is really great. You can set the temperature whatever you want. Some people just would prefer a bucket and they just pour ice in it. But, because I'm in a rush, usually it's better. So, every morning I get in for about 45 seconds completely submerged.

Ben:  45 seconds. But, you must keep it pretty cold to just go 45 seconds. Holy cow, I just pulled up a picture of it. Wow. Siberian cold plunge. Do you have this large tank, the big one?

Dallas:  Yeah.

Ben:  Wow. That's almost a 14,000-dollar cold plunge. It looks pretty sexy.

Dallas:  Yeah, it is. It's a nice one. So, yeah. Because when I moved to Texas, I don't get cold enough water for showers. The water isn't cold enough. So, I always took cold showers. And, I had a friend who had a really awesome cold plunge that he built himself and I used to go to his place once a week or so. So eventually, I saved up, nested in this cold plunge and it's been fantastic.

Now, yeah, for 45 seconds, I just hold my breath, I do some breathing before I get in. So, I do about 20 them off, inhale/exhales and then I hold my breath for about 45 seconds completely submerged. So, that's every morning.

At night, usually a few times a week, I'll get in up to my neck for about six, seven minutes. I keep it at 45. A lot of athletic recommendations are in the 50s, but I prefer it colder. I just tend to be a little bit more of an extreme guy. So, I do 45. My whole family does it now actually as well. I have multiple kids who have various health issues. I have one daughter who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is really hard on the joints and skin and whatnot. So, when she's not at college, she's doing the cold tank.

So yeah, I've got multiple reasons for it. But, every morning, no matter what, first thing, 45 seconds totally submerged, head underwater. Then, on shooting days, I don't have time for a full workout, so I do about eight to ten minutes with a heavy kettlebell. I'll do 50, 75 swings while I'm standing on a vibrating, one of those kind of you stand on it and vibrates your legs and stuff like that.

Ben:  Oh, you do the swings while you're on the vibration platform?

Dallas:  Yeah, yeah.

Ben:  That's one exercise I actually haven't done on the vibration platform. I have one of those big Power Plate platforms and my go-to workout is I do a minute long isometric squat, then a minute of push-ups. This would be when I have serious decision making fatigue and all I want to do is just a super simple workout. So, a minute squat hold to a minute push-ups and I'll just Jam back and forth for 10 rounds, so a total of 20-minute workouts. But, I haven't thrown the swings in.

Dallas:  Yeah. So, I'll just do anywhere from 50 to 75 swings while I'm standing on that. The other thing that's a non-negotiable for me, and I learned this from ATHLEAN X, Jeff Cavalier. He said, “Do this every day.” And, this has been a game changer for me because I had lower back pain for 20 years and this has been I think the top things. Also for my kids, because my kids are all on their phones. I think everyone needs to do this exercise, which is I just take a stretch band and I hold it above my head. So, if you can picture this. My palm is facing me and it's almost like you're doing a chin-up. So, I put my palms above my head and they face me and I put my thumbs out and I hold this stretch band and I pull it down to my chest and with the hands out. So, it's like I'm doing [00:13:54] _____ to my chest.

Ben:  Yeah, it's almost like a band pull apart but you're moving it down towards your chest as you're pulling apart.

Dallas:  Yeah.

Ben:  Okay. Got you. That's something that I don't know if you looked into Ben Patrick much, he known as the Knees Over Toes guy but he also has a really great book on Amazon, tiny little book but it's called ATG, “ATG for Life.” There's two workouts in there, you just do one day of the week, one another day of the week, and they're all these really simple injury prevention workouts like split squat, lunges, and low back extensions, and some variations on the tib anterior exercise. But, he has those band pull-up parts because it trains all those muscles that tend to get pulled forward as you work on your computer or as you're driving. So, you're starting over your head and then bring it down to the chest as you pull the band apart?

Dallas:  Yes. And, I don't remember the science behind it, I just know that it's been working for me. But, I think it's about it works some muscles that you don't get just from traditional face poles and other body parts. And, here's the main thing, I think also because I know Jeff Cavalier is big on shoulders like shoulder injuries. I've had shoulder surgery. I dislocated my shoulder multiple times until I finally had surgery. It runs on my family. So, a lot of the stuff I do is really to help my shoulders. One of the reasons why I don't do a lot of push-ups because they tend to be harder. But anyway, I do 12 to 15 of those every single morning. I also do those on the vibration machine just for no other reason than just it's I'm in a rush, so I want to get as much little help as I can get. What that does is it works the muscle memory for posture. The moment you're done doing those, your chest is up, your shoulders are back —

Ben:  You mean the band pull parts?

Dallas:  Yes.

Ben:  Okay.

Dallas:  And, I get comments now. I used to slouch and I get comments not from people who didn't even know that I used to slouch will just say, “Well, you really have good posture. What is behind that?” I'm like, “Band pulls.” And today, it's even more important than ever with how people are on their phones and slouched over and neck down and everything. And, I'm pretty obsessed with my kids about putting their chin up while they're on their phone. But, this exercise is, again, a non-negotiable. So, whether I have time or I don't, I do the band pull every morning.

And then, the only other one that's non-negotiable is foam rolling my glutes. That's another thing that has changed the game for my lower back. I mean, I used to foam roll my lower back —

Ben:  Really?

Dallas:  Yeah, I used to foam roll my lower back because it hurts so good. I felt like I was doing something for years. And, I then saw this video online that was like, “Do not foam roll your lower back, your spine is already curved in that direction and you're making it worse,” yadi, yada. So now, I foam roll my glutes and I actually line up the foam roller perpendicular to my leg. No, sorry, parallel to my —

Ben:  Parallel too like yeah.

Dallas:  Yeah. And, I foam roll my glutes every morning without exception and that has more than any other thing including some other things that I do for my back that are great too like luggage carry and all that. But, foam rolling my lower back, sorry, foam rolling my glutes every morning has just completely changed the game and now, I stay on like I'm on my feet literally 12, 14 hours a day without a single issue. And, that's been a big game changer for me.

Ben:  Yeah. So, when you say you foam roll on the glutes and it's parallel, so it's lined up along the same axis as your leg like going down towards your quad. And, are you kind of sheering back and forth that way?

Dallas:  So, what I do when I foam roll, and this is again another Jeff Cavalier tip, is instead of just rolling back and forth, I'm doing little pulses just back and forth five seconds at a time.

Ben:  Yeah, almost like flossing like Kelly Starrett would call it.

Dallas:  Exactly. And then, I slowly move it across from one side of the cheek to the other and towards the crack, and then I go to the other cheek, and then I do that. And so, it's 15, well no, it's terrible learning that, probably 30 to 45 seconds per cheek.

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  And, I'm telling you man, that is an absolute game changer. And, everyone that I have recommended that to because on movie sets, I'm running into people who are always stretching their back and they're always like, “Oh, my molar back's killing me.” I'm like, “Dude, I'll buy them a foam roller. I send them a video that I once posted on my Instagram page.”

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  These four things that changed my life with my back. And, I send it to them and all of them come back and go, “Oh, my gosh, instant relief, total change.” I mean, it's just, I don't know. I think it almost releases the tension that's existing in your back. But man, between that and the upper body, sorry, upper back kind of band pulls.

Ben:  So, you said there were four things; the band pull parts, rolling the glutes parallel, what were the other two? Do you remember?

Dallas:  The other two things that have changed my lower back are the luggage carry, the farmers carry whatever you call it is walking on the treadmill just holding heavy weights at my side. I just thought that that was one of the most common exercises that was in every popular fitness routine. And so, that really just worked the core. And then, I also do it on one hand at a time too. So, I'll carry maybe 70 or 80 pounds in both hands and do that for, let's say, a minute. And then, I'll also then do 60 pounds in one hand for a minute or a minute and a half or two minutes, switch to the other side. That really works the lats. When you're holding a heavy weight on just at your side without even moving, you're just holding it, touch the opposite lat and it's just totally ripping and engaged. So, I lift heavy weights three days a week and on the off days, I walk on the treadmill.

Ben:  Yeah. You walk on the treadmill but you hold the dumbbells while you're doing it?

Dallas:  Yeah, not the whole time. I mean, I'll do a treadmill walk for about 45 minutes.

Now, the other thing, this is the fourth thing, is from Knees Over Toes Guy, which is walking backwards.

Ben:  Yeah. So, walking backwards on the treadmill for 15 minutes. I usually do that in early on or near the end of that workout. I'm usually wearing a weighted vest. I got a 60-pound weighted vest that I wear. So, I'll do 45 minutes on the treadmill. Again, when I'm filming, I don't have time for this. When I'm filming, I get in about 15,000 steps a day just naturally. I don't need to be on a treadmill. But, day like today where I'm not filming anymore, I get up I do a normal workout, 45 minutes or so, and I'm lifting weights one day. And then, the “off day,” I'm on a treadmill wearing a weighted vest and I'm doing the farmer carry for some of it. I'm walking backwards for 10 to 15 minutes. But, all that core work has been the biggest thing when it comes to long-term back relief. And then, you preach this more than anybody. You can't just take a pill to make it feel better, you've got to, over time, recreate your system so that it's foundationally stronger for things like your back. And so, got the core work and the footwork.

I mean, Ichiro Suzuki was a Japanese baseball player, played in the Major leagues and lasted until he was 46. And, they talked to him about the secret of his fitness and his success and his longevity, he's like, “Feet. I take care of my feet.”

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  So, I've got a slant board, I walk backwards. When I'm on the treadmill, I wear flat-soled shoes like those running shoes that have no —

Ben:  Yeah, like zero drop.

Dallas:  Yeah, zero drop.

Ben:  Yeah, it's funny, you said, because right now as you're talking about foot care, I have this one company, Naboso, they sell proprioceptive foot mats. I got one in my sauna and then they have the little toast blade devices and socks that have the appropriate receptive material built into it. But then, they have things you can stand on while you're at your desk. And, I have one of their little balls underneath my feet right now. I had one of these topo mats, so I'm constantly doing footwork while on podcast with some of the guy like you. So, I get it. Yeah, they're Naboso, Emily Splichal, S-P-L-I-C-H-A-L. She's the go-to person, the go-to doctor for foot optimization. She was on my podcast a while ago, but their products are super cool for anybody who's just standing around their desk anyways and wants to do the foot care.

Dallas:  Are you an advocate for avoiding cushions and stuff? Because I used to wear foot lifts and cushions, thick soled shoes and I've started to come off of that.

Ben:  Yeah, it kind of depends. Let's say your goal is just the biomechanical aspects of hip and knee alignment and getting stronger feet and avoiding the compressed toe box phenomenon that a lot of times wind up reshaping people's feet and leading to the upper biomechanical issues, and yeah, I'm a fan of the minimalist approach. But, I think there's also practical aspects when I race Spartan, I tried to go minimalist for a while, but the problem is you're on rocks and you're going over barriers and you'd constantly be injuring your feet because these minimalist shoes didn't provide quite enough cushion. So, I went kind of mid-cushion for those while still wearing for my day-to-day footwear for my long walks, things like the Earth Runners sandals or Vibrams or other minimalist footwear. Another example would be like hunting. If I go hunting in Hawaii and I'm on a lot of rocks or if I'm traipsing around the snow out here in Washington, yeah, I'm not going to be an idiot where like the old [00:23:03] _____ sandals or you probably call them Jesus sandals, I guess in your sector, but I'm kind of picky choosy. But then, the other thing is a lot of people nowadays they have gout uric acid deposits in the toes. They'll get foot injuries or plantar fasciitis, et cetera. And, for something like that to wear minimalist shoes is torture.

I had a foot injury a few months ago and I actually for the first time in my life bought one of the shoes I would have made fun of two years ago, these big cushion cloud running HOKAs. And, oh my gosh, they're so comfortable. I could walk for miles and miles and miles and I wouldn't think about my feet or foot pain or foot discomfort at all. And, I realized, yeah, maybe if I were to use those all the time, I'd be getting weak feet, but I think for the rest of my life, I will have one pair of these big built-up super comfortable Cadillac cushion shoes just because they do make long walks super comfortable or a day of travel where you're walking through airports, things like that. I do like the idea of throwing in the big old cushion ones every once in a while. For me, it's probably 80/20. I'm 80% minimalist, get the feet stronger, do the foot therapy with the ball, wear the Earth Runner type of sandals or the Vibram type of soles or, what's the other company, Vivobarefoot. But then, for long, long walks or times when my feet are just beat up, I'll do the HOKAs. And then, the other one is I've been getting super into pickleball. And so, for a lot of those type of sports, minimalist just doesn't work, they just don't have enough toe protection, et cetera. But, yeah, that's my take on the foot care stuff.

You did mention a couple things I wanted to dive into briefly because I had a few thoughts that went through my head, I didn't want to interrupt you as you're going through routine, but you talked about the backward walking on the treadmill, which I have this philosophy that when I go for a walk back to that 80/20 approach, I try to walk backwards for 20% of the time. I'll get texts from people near my house who see me walking up the road, they're like, “Hey, I saw you walking backwards up by your house the other day,” and it's because I always throw in and it's just sometimes for every mile I walk, I'll throw in 100 steps walking backwards. But, I think that whole idea of it being the Chinese secret to longevity or as Ben Patrick, the knees over toes guy, says one of the best things you could do for your knee musculature. I think there's something to that. But, I was recently looking and I realized this might not be up everybody's alley but since Dallas you spent $13,000 on a cold plunge, you might be interested in this new treadmill called a SledMill. Have you seen this thing?

Dallas:  I haven't. I mean, I've seen Ben do on his videos the sled poles and stuff.

Ben:  Yeah. This is like a treadmill because I live on a north-facing slope on the trees. I got a long drive but it's all gravelly. I don't have a lot of places I can do sled pushing and sled pulling, but this is a treadmill. You should google, it's called the SledMill and it's designed for people who want to do some of those really rigorous sled pushes, sled pulls, backwards walking, et cetera, but it's all just on a treadmill, so you don't actually have to be covering 100 yards or whatever. So, that's an interesting device. I haven't gotten one yet, but it's probably the next purchase I'm going to do for my home gym. It's called a SledMill.

And, that one's interesting but then the other thing you were talking about the farmer's walks. I had a coach. I've interviewed him on the show before. He's my kettlebell coach, Joseph Anew. And, he introduced me to the concept of death walks. And, this is a game changer when it comes to taking the idea of luggage carries on the treadmill activating the lats and keeping the shoulder complex in place if you have good nice upright posture. It's like that on steroids. What you do is you do that same type of long walk, but you do it with two kettlebells and you start with the kettlebells overhead. Like literally both of them overhead, shoulders locked as good a posture as you can maintain. And then, once your shoulders kind of poop out, then you move them down into a racked position on the chest. And then, once you get to the position where you can't hold the rack position anymore, then you drop them and you go into the standard farmer's walk.

I started doing that instead of just the standard farmer's walk and I mean, the idea of the full body workout kind of the inspiratory and expiratory muscle training when you got them wrapped right at your chest and then the final component just doing the luggage carries until your grip is gone, it's kind of an upgrade to the idea of doing just the luggage carry. So, it's a death walk with the kettlebell starting overhead and then rack position and then down by the side. And, I like that one even better than the luggage carries now. So, if you have a couple of kettlebells, you should try that one out. You do that on a treadmill or you could do it in your yard or whatever.

Dallas:  Yeah. I mean, I'm looking it up while you're talking. And yeah, that's that dumbbell death march is what it's —

Ben:  Oh, is that what they call it? Yeah, I've only ever done it with kettlebells. I don't know with dumbbells, but you could pull it off with dumbbells too, or sandbags.

The other thing I was going to ask you was you mentioned that Instagram video that you shared with the band pull parts and the foam rolling and the backwards walking and the, what was the last one, it was the?

Dallas:  The luggage carry.

Ben:  Luggage carry, yeah. If you have that video and you want to email it to me or text it to me, I'll put it in the shownotes if people want to go check it out. It's going to be at BenGreenfieldLife.com/Dallas, D-A-L-L-A-S because I know for some people who are visual, they'll probably want to see this. So, can you shoot me that video?

Dallas:  Absolutely. I've shared it with a lot of people and my social media pages are primarily for film, of course, but I started once a week just doing little tips. And, people now when they recognize me, will come up and go, “Oh, I'm loving your healthy tips. I just started eating egg yolks instead of whites. It's so much better.” And, it's so gratifying. So, that thing was huge. So yeah, I'll send that.

Ben:  Okay. So, if things don't work out in the film industry, you can be an online Instagram influencer for fitness. There you go.

I was going to ask you one other thing too and then I want to hear a little bit more about your diet, your late night work, and this idea of working from 11:00 pm to 4:00 am or whatever. Obviously, I can tell by the way you're talking you're no doubt aware of the elements of circadian rhythmicity and how hard shift work can be on the body and things like that.

But, do you have certain hacks whether it's nootropics or smart drugs or light-producing devices or things that you use to kind of get you through a sleep-deprived day or a lot of that late-night work?

Dallas:  Yeah. Here's the thing. I wish I had better advice on this, but I think a lot of this for me is genetics. I just have always been a night owl. I don't need quite as much sleep as the average person. Some people have told me it's because of how I eat. I was keto for about five years now I'm transitioning a little bit more towards into the Paul Saladino realm of I'm introducing more fruits and whatnot. And, I think the cold plunge makes a difference for me. Occasionally, I do have those, don't I don't remember the name of it, I wish I could, but there's a device you wear on your eyes. It's like goggles but —

Ben:  Oh, the Re-timer glasses?

Dallas:  Yeah, exactly.

Ben:  Oh, I have a set of those. They're amazing. They produce the greenish blue wave light, which is the one that's closest to the wakefulness spectrum of sunlight. They work actually really well. Have you seen the in-ear one that they make in Finland, the Human Charger?

Dallas:  I haven't seen that, no.

Ben:  Okay. So, the Human Charger does the ears and then the Re-timers do the eyes. And, that's what I'll use when I travel. I'll just do that one-two combo if I'm in some place where I don't know, Vegas or whatever where it's almost impossible to go find sunlight in the morning. I'll put those goes on for jump-starting the circadian rhythm or keeping you up if you've got to work late at night. That's a really good one-two combo.

Dallas:  Yeah. So, the light stuff, yeah, I haven't heard about the ear, so that's interesting. I'll look into that. But, putting the thing in my eyes. Usually, I don't do it at night but I'll do it midday. If I wake up at 10:00, let's say I'm in a real intense writing session for a couple weeks where my wake hours are from like 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning till 3:00 or 4:00 at night, I might do it in the afternoon just to kind of shift the hours a little bit. But, a lot of the thing is sunlight. I mean, I used to be a total vampire, my wife used to tease me about it. I mean, I didn't like sunlight, I always had the shades down. I just preferred it. Didn't hated the heat. Now, I moved to Texas, so I still hate the heat but I've been forced to get used to it. But, I'm just really embracing sunlight now more than ever.

When COVID hit and every single bit of research I was doing because I was just obsessed with our country fighting COVID differently from just trying to take — I mean, I'm not against vaccines or anything but I was just like, “I think our country as a whole needs to be better prepared but with our bodies to handle viruses than just solely trying to cover other stuff.” So, I was just looking into all that and it just seems across the world throughout the history of time all the way up until today, every smart person says sunlight is the cure to half of our issues. So, I've just decided to embrace that more.

So, when I wake up even if I'm waking up at 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning, when I go out to my cold plunge, I'm going outside. I'll walk around for a few minutes, stare into the, not at the Sun, but in the direction of the Sun. And then, I'll do that again maybe in the afternoon just to try to really tell my body we're awake, we're vibrant. So, even if I'm doing that at 4 o'clock in the afternoon instead of someone like you who might be doing it at 9:00 in the morning, I'm trying to just trigger my body to be on a normal cycle but just at a different time.

Ben:  Right. You're shifting your circadian rhythm forward.

Dallas:  Right.

Ben:  Yeah. I wonder have you ever done any gene testing? Because the sleep genes, I think it's the DEC2 gene was the original one, and then they found a couple other mutations that allowed the few people who actually are telling the truth that they actually do get by in short sleep because there's certain people who say, “Oh, I'll sleep and I die,” and they technically are horribly unhealthy and they can't get by in short sleep. Then, there are certain people that actually go through their full sleep cycles in a shorter period of time and they have these gene mutations that alter the neurotransmitters in the human brain that allow for shorter sleep cycles. Probably the same type of people who I don't know in the ancestral times would have been wired up to be the sentries or the people guarding the cities at night or whatever. You can actually have this short sleep gene and live healthy with it. I don't know if you've ever tested your genes for this, but I got to ask you, I've talked to a few people who actually have done the 23andMe or the full genetic analysis and found these sleep genes. I'll link to an article in the shownotes if anybody wants to read up on them. But, these people have reported me that they also tend to have super crazy dreams like sometimes almost nightmarish dreams but every night they seem to have intense dreams. Have you ever found that to be the case for you?

Dallas:  What's funny is the time that I have the most intense dreams and my sleep cycle is the shortest is when I usually take certain types of sleeping aids. And, the biggest one I told you this when I took your, how do you pronounce it again, is it Kion or Kion?

Ben:  Oh, the Kion Sleep with the tryptophan?

Dallas:  Yeah. So, I got your Kion Sleep after I listened to one of your podcast because when I'm filming sometimes I'm up late but I still have to get up early in the morning. And, I don't want to fall asleep fast. Well, when I took your Kion Sleep, I had super intense dreams and I woke up I think it was four or four and a half hours into, like just woke up I was awake and I didn't feel exhausted. And, that's why I was texting you, I'm like, “How do I get back to sleep if I'm waking up at 4:00 in the morning but I don't want to wake up at 4:00 in the morning?”

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  So, I think now I use your pills on nights when I've stayed up too late but I still have to get up early and I need four and a half because I try to time it according to 90-minute intervals, 90 minutes, three hours, four and a half, six, seven and a half. that Seems to be a good pattern. If I want short but good sleep, your pills worked. 

But, yeah, I haven't done any testing. I'm actually going to be doing 23andMe here on a couple days. I just ordered the kit. What's funny is my dad's the opposite, my dad gets up and does all his writing from 5:30 in the morning till 11:00 in the morning. But, I've always just been a night out. No, to be fair, I still try to get six hours of sleep. If I can get six, that's ideal for me. If I can get more, that's great too, but I've just found that even when I get a short amount of sleep and I have a full day of 14 hours on the set, I just don't find the things that other people talk about, brain fog.

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  Crash in the afternoon or anything like that. My mood doesn't seem to be affected by it. The cold plunge has ensured that even more, I feel even more alive shortly after I wake up. But, I'm telling you, I don't feel a lot of the things that other people talk about. My workouts, I don't sense if I've worked out after having a not a great night sleep. It doesn't seem to impact. And, I don't sense that I have to lower my weights or anything like that, it's just a unique thing.

Ben:  Yeah. You probably do have one of those genes. I don't know if the 23andMe, sometimes they don't report on those genes. There are places you can export those results out to like Genetic Genie, for example, they give you a more full analysis of your genes. The one I tend to use a lot that, again, doesn't give the sleep genes but will tell you all of the variants that are the ones that are most significant in terms of susceptibilities to specific health issues is StrateGene. And, you can do your 23andMe test like you're going to do and then export the results into StrateGene. And, that's what I have a lot of my clients do because it identifies the major genes that you actually have to worry about because 23andMe will tell you some stuff that I'm not that important like your propensity towards blue or brown eyes or whether or not you're going to lose your hair or something like that. But then, StrateGene will give you your nitric oxide synthase genes, your methylation genes, your glutathione profile, a lot of stuff that is a little bit more actionable in terms of data.

Another thing that I thought of when you were mentioning the Kion Sleep, it actually does help you get back to sleep if you wake up during in the night and you got to take it whatever, 3:00 am but you don't want to wake up at 5:00 am groggy, which would happen if you took melatonin or CBD or something like that. What I do with the Kion Sleep is I either use the powder, which gets absorbed a lot more quickly if you just let it dissolve in your mouth or actually chew on the capsules. They don't taste that great, but you get in your system a lot more quickly. But, what I do now since you texted me, this is like a new thing that I've been trying and it works really well is a non-sleep deep rest protocol after you dose. 

Let's say I wake up at 2:30 because I had to get up to pee and I'm having a hard time getting back to sleep, I'll do the Kion Sleep, but the non-sleep deep rest protocol is basically a body scan where you start your feet, awareness into the feet, then let the feet relax and then move to the calves, move to the knees, and the quads, and the hips, and the low back, and so on and so forth, all the way up to the arms. And then, finally, if you're still awake at that point, the neck, the back of the head, and then the face, and the top of the head. And, what inevitably happens to me is by about the time I get up to my torso, I just lose track of time, and then I wake up a couple hours later.

The guy who has made that protocol popular actually has a YouTube video where he walks you through it. You can download, they're called NSDR protocols. They're also known from a more ancestral standpoint as Yoga Nidra protocols, but essentially, it's like a body scan. There's something about it though and I think it's because it keeps your mind from thinking about other things like ruminating thoughts such as what you're going to do when you wake up later on to work is it allows you to focus on just these body parts. You almost get bored doing it, very similar to counting sheep but more effective. And man, that one-two combo of doing NSDR or Yoga Nidra plus the Kion Sleep has been really, really good for me for those early morning awakenings where I really know it's not quite time to get out of bed.

Dallas:  Yeah, that's really good. Because I find that when I have to get up early for a specific thing, that's the worst because even if I get to bed at a normal hour, I wake up at 3:00, I wake up at 4:00. I wake up looking at the alarm clock. I cannot —

Ben:  You mean when you have a plane flight or an important phone call that's early in the morning? Yeah.

Dallas:  Yeah, I can't figure out how to trick my brain into not stressing about it while I'm actually sleeping.

Now, the things that have helped me the best with sleeping because I had sleep issues for years and years and years, I mean meaning, as I said, I feel I don't need as much sleep as the average person, and yet I know that's not ideal. I know just because I can function doesn't mean it's healthy for me. But, I would have trouble just falling asleep at night. I have ADHD. My brain was always firing on all cylinders, but weighted blanket has been a big difference-maker for me because it keeps me from moving around so much while I'm sleeping. ChiliPad, really, I think helped keeping me cool because I get really hot at night, so the ChiliPad was a big game changer for me. And then, the cold tank, if I do it too close to bedtime, then that seems to be difficult. But, if I do it maybe 30 minutes before or 45 minutes before bedtime, oh man, it's like a sleeping pill.

Ben:  Yeah, the cold tank is interesting because if you do the super cold or super cold shower right before you go to bed or in a couple hours before I go to bed, it's kind of so much of a hard workout. You get this adrenaline epinephrine response that paradoxically keeps you from going to sleep despite your core temperature being lower. So, the trick for the night is you kind of go lukewarm or slightly cold or very, very brief for the cold exposure just enough to get the body's core temp down. And, if you already have the ChiliPad, then you really don't need to go much longer than that. You said you used a gravity blanket. Have you seen that ChiliPad? Although, I think they changed their name to Sleepme now, the company. They do a weighted blanket that you can get that attaches to a ChiliPad device that actually circulates cold water or warm water if you want it through the gravity blanket.

Dallas:  Oh, no, I haven't seen that.

Ben:  Yeah. It's super cool. I use it in the winter because the gravity blanket, it's kind of like if you were a kid swaddled up in clothing, it's got this soothing effect. But man, with the cold water going through it, you basically got the cold underneath you and on top of you at that point.

Dallas:  Wow. Yeah. Well, I'm taking more notes during this conversation than [00:41:27] _____.

Ben:  Probably going to cost you a few dollars now between that and the SledMill and the extra kettlebells.

The other thing kind of related to stressing when you have to get up is really interesting because you hear a lot about that with medical students who will have to sleep during their residency or whatever but know that at any point and physicians too that they got to be on call and get up. There's this weird shift that takes place in the human brain where when you know that you're going to have to wake up or you don't even know when you're going to have to wake up but you know what's going to happen. The body doesn't sleep that well. The same as when you're going to catch a plane flight or when you have an early morning appointment. That's why I personally even though I'm highly productive in the mornings, I try to as much as possible avoid any actual appointments until about 9:30 or 10:00 am. And, everything else, all the work up to that point is on my own time just because I have the same thing. If I know there's something coming up early in the morning, it's strange, it's actually much, much harder to actually get to sleep.

Dallas:  It's brutal. I mean, yeah. And, I have not figured out how to do that the night before the first day of the week. In fact, I have a few other crew members who say the same, so Sunday night. We know that the first day of the week is coming, we've had a weekend, we've been rested. And, first day of a filming week is usually very early in the morning because, well, it's a long story why usually because of union rules, you have to give what's called turn around at the end of each day. Meaning, you have to have a certain amount of hours before the next day. So, if you have any night shoots that you have coming up, they're always at the end of the week because you can do a night shoot at the beginning of the week and then try to expect people to get up in the morning after that.

So, long story short, Monday morning is obviously at the end of a good weekend and you have to get up early. And, every Sunday night, man, all of us say the same thing, we cannot fall asleep, we're stressed about it. And then, when we do fall asleep, you wake up every hour, it's just brutal. And, I have not figured out the life hack other than I know that the Kion pills, again, I forget the pronunciation, but those pills that I got from you, those do help me fall asleep, I just wake up four and a half hours in but at least I got that deep sleep where your dreams are telling brand new stories, it could be their own movies.

Ben:  Yeah, exactly. I haven't found anything to get over it, but again, besides something like the Kion sleep, plus the non-sleep deep rest protocol.

Now, how about when you are up, are you into any particular nootropics or smart drugs or wakefulness-promoting agents?

Dallas:  Not really. I mean, I probably could look into that and deep dive a little bit more. I feel like I'm already obsessive enough as it is on some of my other things. I'm like if I try to look into one more thing, I'll go down another rabbit hole. But, I find that I haven't needed that. I mean, I'm not even a big coffee person. I drink some coffee every now and then and some green tea just for health benefits, but I don't find that it gives me any more of a boost or wakefulness than intermittent fasting does or the kind of the higher-fat diet that I do low-carb stuff because I'm now incorporating fruit more, I'm really looking into every other day now. I have tons of fruit along with my higher fat high protein diet. And, I'm kind of experimenting with that a little bit. But, I just don't have some of the crashes that most people do, my brain is always firing pretty well, so I just haven't felt the need to look into more of the stuff you're talking about. I'm not saying it wouldn't help me, but I just haven't really needed it.

Ben:  Alright. So, whole-body wellness is obviously a big part of my life. I'm always looking for new ways to make my body feel great, make my brain feel great. One non-negotiable for me is a daily dose of red light. I can use it to simulate sunlight. I can use it to simulate sunrise, sunset right in my office, bringing the sun into my own office. That infrared light spectrum is fantastic for boosting cellular energy for healing damaged cells that are under oxidative stress. There's a ton of clinically proven benefits to it. Better skin, higher testosterone, better blood flow to the whole body, pre-workout or post-workout for recovery. Use them in your office at night when you don't want to flip on all the bright lights, but you want that giant dose of soothing red light therapy.

And, what I go to is Joovv for my red light. They source from the highest quality materials. They got medical-grade components. They went through third-party testing. They have safety marks from nationally recognized testing laboratories. They give you the safest, most reliable product. It's unmatched. There's a lot of red light companies out there, but Joovv is unmatched. They have a whole-body treatment device. I can treat my whole body in 10 to 20 minutes. I do it once a day. They even have a little handheld device called the Joovv Go. I can throw it in my suitcase and take with me on the go, barely weighs anything. And so, I can do my red light when I'm in my hotel room anywhere in the world. This stuff just works. It travels through TSA too also just fine.

So, Joovv.com/Ben, J-O-O-V-V.com/Ben. Apply my code BEN to your qualifying order, and you can feel what infrared's actually like in terms of a big upgrade in your health, J-O-O-V-V.com/Ben. And, you're going to get an exclusive discount on your first order when you use my code BEN on your qualifying order.

I'm pretty stoked because this is now something I can do when I'm on the go and it's based on this idea that the human body being mostly water. But, what you probably don't know is everything else in your body is 50% amino acids. That means basically water and amino acids are two of the most important things that you can have in your body. And, some amino acids are essential. You have to get them from food, from breaking down steak and chicken and eggs and everything else. But, this stuff called Kion Aminos is a plant-based full essential amino acids profile backed by over 20 years of clinical research with the highest quality ingredients; no fillers, no junk, rigorous quality testing, taste amazing with all-natural flavors. I got on the amino acids bandwagon way back when I was racing Ironman triathlon. Started with branch chain amino acids, realized those were wasted time, switched over to essential amino acids and it has been a game changer ever since.

Now, what did I mean when I said travel? Well, these Kion Aminos, which are the essential amino acids that I take, they have for the watermelon flavor, the lemon-lime flavor, the berry flavor, and the mango flavor, they got stick packs now, so you can take them on the go. I honestly have a couple packs in my fanny pack now. I can dump them in water when I'm at a restaurant, have that instead of a bread basket that comes out or a cocktail. They satiate the appetite. They accelerate recovery. They're amazing pre-workout or during a workout. The list goes on and on. Fact is if you haven't tried essential amino acid, you're a miss now.

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There's obviously a lot of formulations out there probably. I think the coolest company out there right now doing nootropic formulations is called Nootopia. I interviewed the guy that is a formulator for that company and you go online, you fill out a questionnaire that identifies the unique neurotransmitters that you might need during any given day if you're short on sleep or you want a cognitive pick me up, and then they kind of customize a package and they send it to your house, these little formulations like Brain Flow and brain upgrade and Nectar and these little brain nutrients. That company, I think, is doing a really good job.

But then, my latest find that I've been using for about the past four weeks especially on sleep deprived days or travel days is this molecule. You can typically find it in coffee. Coffee gets broken down into caffeine, which everybody knows, and then theobromine, which is the same feel-good euphoric component that you might find in chocolate or cacao. And then, the last one that a lot of people don't know about is paraxanthine. It's spelled P-A-R-A-X-A-N-T-H-I-N-E. And, there's the movie, I'm sure you probably heard of it or have seen it, “Limitless” with Bradley Cooper was inspired by this anti-narcoleptic agent called modafinil or also known as Provigil, which will keep you awake for 24 hours. I have in my emergency travel stack if I fly overseas and get in at 2:00 am and got to go speak on stage at 8:00 am and then go through a full day at a conference. I'll actually take some of that modafinil, but the problem is it'll keep you up for 12, 16, sometimes 24 hours. This paraxanthine stuff gives you the same hyper-focus kind of feel-good euphoric effect only lasts about four to six hours. And so, that's the one that I'm using now if I am sleep deprived or if I just got to hammer through a morning but I don't want to stay up later on that night. Sounded like you don't even need something like that, but I figure for people listening in and want to look into something like that, there's not a lot of companies that sell it right now because I think it's kind of new but it's called paraxanthine. So, it's an interesting one to look out into if people are sleep deprived and want to try it.

Dallas:  Yeah. What have you found for focus? Because I would say my bigger issue is not alertness, it's focus.

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  When I'm sitting down to write my desire, to browse, to check scores, I mean I'm just so easily distracted. And, unless I become a cannabis addict or something because I know that it can help with focus, but I'm trying to avoid being dependent on that kind of stuff.

Ben:  I think cannabis kind of makes you a little loopy. It's not that great for testosterone too with long-term use, it kind of impairs testosterone and fertility. But yeah, for the focus in the past there's been two things I've used. One is caffeine like a cup of coffee, but you add L-theanine to it. And, L-theanine kind of elongates the effects of coffee but produces a little bit more alpha brain waves. And so, you get less of the jitteriness from the coffee but it kind of gives you this long slow bleed of focus. What you do is like a typical cup of coffee, you add 100 milligrams of L-theanine powder or you take 100 milligram L-theanine capsule at the same time that you have your coffee. So, that and/or microdosing with psychedelics particularly psilocybin or LSD that I'm not a fan of heftier doses of those for other reasons, I just think they're overused and abused, but very, very slight small doses of either of those two can be really good for enhancing simultaneously focus and creativity. 

Of course, the problem is they're illegal, they're difficult to get, they're difficult to source, and the quality varies widely. But, up until a few weeks ago, again, I would have done caffeine plus L-theanine or a microdose of psilocybin or LSD. But now, I've been using that paraxanthine thing and I think it works even better, particularly for focus. So, that's my new one that I like. And, it doesn't seem to have a waning effect, it actually seems to work better the more frequently that I use, almost as though the body has learned how to handle that molecule effectively. So, those are probably the top three, would be microdosing or caffeine plus L-theanine or paraxanthine is the top three for focus.

Dallas:  Yeah, I'm going to look into that. Yeah, you mentioned microdosing. My first thought was, is that legal? I mean, I'm in Texas, I know it's not legal here, but I've been looking into that just psychedelics in general just because I think that there's some extraordinary progress being made in that field. But yeah, the theanine, I have tried. There's, I don't know if you know this fitness influencer and I'm sure you may disagree with them on things, but this Kinobody, which is a guy named Greg O'Gallagher —

Ben:  Oh, yeah, I've heard of him. Yeah.

Dallas:  Yeah. And, he has a product called Kino Octane, which has been really, really good. In fact, I drink that sometimes instead of coffee. And, my wife now is really into it. Kino Octane really has been a big benefit. And, I've noticed my focus in mood change. I don't usually try to do things at night just because I don't want to stay up till in the morning, but I might actually start thinking, look, if I'm going to be writing from 11:00 to 4:00 at night, I might as well take maybe some of that 9:30 or so.

Ben:  Yeah. I just pulled up the label, it's got caffeine and L-theanine, so basically exactly what I just described, which is great. It's probably why you notice that effect. But then, it's got ginseng, biotin, which is really interesting. Biotin is super cool too just because a lot of guys who are deficient in biotin, they take it and they notice a bump up in testosterone, and thiamine, B vitamin, and L-citrulline for the blood flow. Yeah, that's pretty well formulated. I like that. Kino Octane, huh.

Dallas:  Yeah, K-I-N-O Octane really has been a big help. Again, my wife was very different from me and she does get up early in the morning because she has to with kids for school. And, she's often tired and she said her writing and her mood is better from Kino Octane than it was from coffee. So, that's been a big help.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. And, you always want to look for like sucralose and artificial sweeteners. But, it looks like they sweeten this one with stevia. So yeah, it looks pretty solid.

Dallas:  Yup. And, the only thing I'd be curious what you think of this is he says, well, what I do is Kino Octane first and then he'll do coffee a few hours later and he says that the coffee before the workout kind of hyper charges the theanine you took a couple hours earlier.

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  It's like an additional boost because they make each other stronger.

Ben:  Yeah. I guess it would depend because it looks they already have caffeine anhydrous in the compound but if somebody's a fast caffeine metabolizer, which a lot of people are, then redosing with the caffeine could give a little bit of an extra effect pre-workout. So yeah, that's solid. I like that formula.

This whole transition that you're doing from keto into carnivore, tell me about that. What inspired that move?

Dallas:  Well, I've been doing keto for about five years, worked great for me overall and then I saw online, I finished filming. While I was filming, I realized I was, I know on your podcast we can talk about these kinds of things, my wife will roll her eyes, but gassiness. So, I was really, really gassy for years. I mean, I was known among my friends as just if I fart, stay away, it's absolutely brutal.

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  And, when I switched to keto, that all went away. And, my wife —

Ben:  Right, you just lost all the fermentable carbohydrates.

Dallas:  Right. And, she would say I can tell when you cheated because that day would be farting. And, the biggest thing for me seemed to be carbs with dairy. That was the bowl of cereal with milk it's just Titanic. So, keto, I can tell like bloating and gas were the things that were the markers for me as what was healthy. And, for a few weeks, I found myself, I'm like, “Man, I'm gassy.” Again, what is it? What am I eating in addition to my normal keto diet, I couldn't quite figure it out. And, I decided I was going to really figure it out and plus my daughter has a lot of health issues so I wanted to try to find something optimal for her. So, I was like, “I'm going to eliminate and I'm going to do,” I don't know if you've heard of this, “the BBBE challenge,” 30 days of just bacon, butter, beef, and eggs.

Ben:  I haven't heard of bacon, butter, beef, and eggs for 30 days.

Dallas:  Yeah, just nothing but that. And then, of course, you can drink, I mean, water and salt and stuff like that. So, Dr. Ken Berry is a popular carnivorous keto-ish guy on YouTube. But, he said 30 days and just see how you feel. And so, I did that not because I want to do that for the rest of my life but because then I wanted to, after a month, introduce fruits and see what that would do. And then, eventually introduced some dairy and see what that would do.

And, I was started to get intrigued by some of Paul Saladino‘s stuff. I don't agree with him on everything, but I was intrigued by the idea of at least for 30 days just eliminating everything else and seeing how I feel. So, I did beef, butter, bacon, eggs for 30 days and felt fantastic. And, I lost 10 pounds. I don't know that I needed to lose 10 pounds but I did. Felt great, no gas, whatsoever, and then I introduced fruit. So now, I'm doing every other day and so I guess form of carb cycling basically, which is every other day I'm having lots of fruit and it's on my lifting day. So, for today, I intermittent fast too. I won't take too much time on that, but I've been intermittent fasting every day for years, 16 to 20 hours. And, there's some new research that indicates that maybe not doing that every day is better that doing it maybe once or twice a week because your body gets so used to the intermittent fasting that it ceases to be as effective. So, I'm such an extreme person. I really need the discipline of a routine, meaning like an eating routine or a fasting routine because I'm such a food addict. My dad and both my brothers have hit 400 pounds in their lives at one point or another.

Ben:  Wow.

Dallas:  Super obese family. And, I've been desperate to avoid that. But, I have the same food addictions and cravings and stuff that they do, I just am more vain. So, I've never let myself get that heavy. But, I need those kinds of rules to keep me from completely binging on cookies for three hours.

So, all that to say, I'm trying to shift gears a little bit. And so, today, for example, just to not take too much time on this but for today, I didn't intermittent fast. I woke up and I had a drink with my concoction and then I ate bacon and eggs. And then, I had a big fruit smoothie during my workout. I've also seen recent research that intro workout carbs can sometimes be helpful. So, I mean, I've been so anti-carb for so long, but Paul Saladino is saying that he did it for two years and then had some issues and started to see the benefits of carbs but carbs through fruit. And so, that's what I'm trying right now. So, I had a fruit smoothie during my workout. I kind of spread it out through the 45 minutes of lifting. And then, I'm going to have three full meals today and I'm going to eat a lot. I'm going to have a lot of calories, a lot of fat, a lot of protein, and fruit. And then, tomorrow, I'll probably intermittent fast and have two meals. And, they'll both be primarily focused on fat and protein and no carbs. I'm just trying that out.

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  I feel pretty good. I just started to think like, is it good, and I think Paul Saladino says this. And again, I don't agree with everything he says, but it just seemed the rest of my life, I don't know how important this whole ketosis thing is and I started seeing some research that long-term ketosis isn't necessarily ideal, so I'm just trying it right now and I'm feeling good. Plus, I love fruit and I'm experimenting with reducing or eliminating vegetables because I've been hearing some of that. So, I'm just trying different things to see how I feel.

Ben:  Yeah. I mean, for management of those like type 2 diabetes or epileptic seizures or something like that, long-term ketosis can be a good medical management strategy. I mean, the long-term carbohydrate deprivation, it has an impact on testosterone levels, the proteoglycans, and in the joints, the thyroid. So yeah, I think the idea of carb cycling or cyclic ketosis as it's called is a much more sound, I think more ancestrally appropriate strategy. I personally kind of hack that by not consuming any carbohydrates or barely any carbohydrates at all until the evening at which point because that's a more a widely varied meal even from a social standpoint when my wife makes sourdough bread or we have a dinner party and somebody brings over some casserole with carbs in it or having red wine or a little bit of ice cream after dinner or whatever. That's when I'll have anywhere from 100 to 200 grams of carbohydrates, which is great too because it's a precursor for serotonin, so you boost a little more melatonin, you sleep better at night and you sock away some glycogen in the tank for the next morning's workout. And, that tends to work pretty well compared to the same thing I experienced with strict ketosis back in the day was you eventually reach a wall, the workouts aren't quite as good, testosterone suffers, thyroid sufferers, et cetera.

Now, what's interesting is that I used to have the same deal with the gas. And, at the time, I didn't understand fermentable carbohydrates but I was doing big green smoothies in the morning. And so, all that prebiotic fiber was making me gassy. And then, my wife called it my microwaved oatmeal cookie. I would literally get up, make a giant thing of oatmeal, put a couple scoops of whey protein in there, some sweeteners, a little bit of almond butter or peanut butter, microwave for two minutes until it was almost like a souffle. I'd eat that. And, of course, within two hours, just peeling paint off the walls with the gas. And, this was way back in the day before I understood much about how gas and bloating occurs was in addition to the whey protein and oatmeal issue and then the giant green smoothies, both of which I thought were healthy. This was back in the day where I would read recipes in Mental Health Magazine, which is anything healthy and kind of replicate those. I was doing a lot of FODMAPs, this whole idea of fermentable carbohydrates. The FODMAPs was oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. And, that would be people who have gas who think they're eating healthy again, but this would be dried fruit, dried mangoes, big stone fruits apples and pears and peaches. Onions and garlic and apples are three biggies. 

And then, anybody who kind of got back in the day when Tim Ferriss made it popular, the whole slow-carb idea of beans and lentils, so many people when they just get rid of FODMAPs not only get rid of pretty much all gas and bloating but irritable bowel issues or bowel syndrome just goes out the window. They've even done studies that have shown that people who thought that a gluten-free diet is what fixed their gut turns out that wasn't it, it was just the idea that at the same time they even eliminated a lot of gluten-containing foods including wheat, which is a FODMAP. They were also eliminating a lot of the carbs, a lot of the dried fruits, and a lot of the things that caused the gas. So, that low FODMAP diet or a low fermentation diet is a game changer as far as the gas and bloating goes because a lot of times, you don't have to go into ketosis or go strict carnivore to get rid of gas, you just need to eliminate the carbohydrates that are fermentable. And, once you eliminate those but you can keep eating the carbs that are not fermentable like, let's say, rice, blueberries, a little bit of honey here and there, some of the smaller fruits, things like that, you can be just fine. So, the FODMAPs are a big one when it comes to that issue.

Dallas:  Yeah. That's been big. Yeah, I used to do the big oatmeal too. And, I would pound onto the oatmeal all these healthy things because I'm like, “Well, I don't really care about the taste as much, so let me you just get anything I can.” Oh, my gosh, like you said, just brutal. There are certain things I still can't do. Like you said, beans and lentils, no matter what, those wreck me even though so many people say they're really healthy. I think for me, it's just not great. But, I'm finding that, again, it's a lot of times it's the combination. So, I can have dairy, I thought I was lactose intolerant, I might be still, I don't know, but when I'm doing no carbs with dairy, I can have some good aged cheeses and have no problem whatsoever and occasionally even have a little bit of milk, a whole milk. I don't do skim milk or anything, but whole milk in smaller quantities. My problem is I do everything huge. I mean, sometimes it's just a matter of, no, you can have some milk, just pound three glasses.

Ben:  It's like my morning smoothie. I accidentally get it up to 1,600 calories some days just because everything's got to go in the blender.

Dallas:  Exactly. You're thinking, “Hey, I might as well keep pouring this in.” So, my smoothie is now a little smaller and I'm leaving out. Yeah, whey protein killed me. I was having whey protein every day for years, heard how great it was, healthy it was, it may be for some people. But, for me, it's awful and I didn't know it. I thought it was great, so I'm just having different proteins now. And, my daughter, because she was having so many issues with IBS and whatnot, did one of those food allergy profile things and whey showed up at the top of things to avoid.

Ben:  Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Dallas:  And, I thought, well, maybe that's probably true for me too.

Ben:  Yeah, it kind of depends on the food allergy test like a lot of them are testing just the IGG sensitivity and you get this huge laundry list of false positives that are typically so-called allergic reaction to a food that's simply antibody reactions to a food that you eat regularly anyways like eggs or beef or something like that. People will test and they'll be like, “I've been eating omelets for years, and turns out I'm allergic to them” when in fact you're just producing antibodies to a food because you're consuming a lot of it. 

The trick is to get IgG and IgE test. There's one company called Cyrex, C-Y-R-E-X, and that's what I have all my clients do for food allergy testing because it'll tell you the foods you're actually allergic to. And then, it tests the white blood cell reaction to both the raw and the cooked version of a protein, which a lot of companies don't do. They'll just test the white blood cell reaction to raw proteins in the human body in general in response to raw eggs, raw beef, raw chicken, et cetera, is going to mount a more significant antibody response to those foods. And so, this Cyrex panel just basically gives you a more precise list of the foods that you should actually avoid. And, I'll have a lot of people do this like an IgG test and be allergic to everything and then they'll do the actual accurate test for IgG and IgE and it turns out that there's not that much or at least less than they thought that they were allergic to that they're actually allergic to. So, that one's called a Cyrex panel, I think. That's pretty solid for food allergy.

Dallas:  That's really helpful because, yeah, my daughter, we were a little confused. Now, because you talked specifically about eggs because that is something that the consultant that we were talking to was like, “Well, if you eat something too often, then you can develop a problem with it.” Are you saying that you actually don't have a problem with it? Are you saying no you should? Isn't the issue is you're allergic to it is that you shouldn't eat it quite so much?

Ben:  Right. It's no problem at all, it just means that your body is producing antibodies as a reaction to that food just because it's built up the ability to be able to handle it normally. And so, no, it's not an issue. If you'd take an IgG food sensitivity test in terms of eggs and whey protein are an issue, I would do an IgG plus IgE instead. And, that would be something like the Cyrex panel.

Dallas:  So, she can have eggs.

Ben:  Yeah, she could. Yeah.

Dallas:  As often as possible? I mean, does it matter?

Ben:  Well, I mean, anything in moderation should probably want to do the whole rocky slamming six raw eggs in a smoothie every day. But yeah, I think eggs within reason are just fine. And, most people who think they're allergic to eggs aren't actually allergic to eggs. If you were to do an IgG, IgE sensitive test, and something like a Cyrex panel and still shows that you're allergic to eggs, that's when I would consider avoiding them. But, if it's just a standard IgE panel, I don't think that's enough to actually avoid.

I do have to ask you though. When you were doing the bacon, butter, beef, and eggs protocol, which I'm sure would have given anybody the American Heart Association an actual heart attack just hearing about it, did you do a blood panel at all and look at your lipids, your triglycerides or anything like that?

Dallas:  Yes. And yeah, I have very high cholesterol, but I mean everything that I've read and I actually don't know where you stand on this, but my triglycerides are awesome, my inflammation is awesome, it's just my LDL is high. And, everything that I'm reading is that that's not an issue and that that's common for that kind of a diet. That's not a problem.

Ben:  Yeah. I mean, unless it's through the roof because you have familial hypercholesteremia or something like that, I think decent levels of LDL. Mine are typically between 200 and 230 which flags as high but because it's so critical for things like cell membranes and precursing to hormones, I think that if your blood glucose is under control, your inflammation is under control, your triglyceride HDL ratio is good, and your Applebee count is within reason that all the things that would cause that LDL to be atherosclerotic becomes a non-issue. 

So, yeah, I think it's better to pay attention to all the things around the cholesterol. And, if those are elevated, then you tackle blood glucose technical inflammation. You tackle your vegetable oil consumption, things like that. But, I think just myopically going after LDL really isn't that useful. So, a lot of people who do that bacon, beef, butter, and eggs protocol but maybe they're, whatever, doing the dirty Atkins approach where you're eating out a lot and getting exposed to a lot of vegetable oils and the chickens that are making the eggs that you're consuming are getting fed a lot of omega-6 rich grains and the beef isn't from a great source with the hormones and antibiotics and things like that. I think that's where you would develop an issue. But, I mean, grass-fed, grass-finished beef and some grass-fed butter and eggs from pastured hens and things along those lines, I don't see any issue with that.

Dallas:  Yeah, that's the thing. I was eating pretty clean. And, when I would go to a restaurant instead of the burgers, I would get the good steak. In Texas, it's easy to get really good steak. My cholesterol for sure, my LDLs got higher than normal. Man, I've always been high but this went really high. And so, I'm starting to round the edges off just a little bit because I don't want to go so crazy. But yeah, my triglycerides and inflammation were just pristine like lower than the low marker. And, I feel fantastic. I mean, 47 years old, skin, joints, I mean, I have no pain, no inflammation or anything like that. I don't think I'm ever going to go full carnivore, but it was good for me to kind of eliminate everything else and figure out as I brought back in fruit going, “Okay, it looks like I'm responding pretty well to fruit.”

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  And, this is a good thing. I'm still back and forth. I'm curious where you stand on vegetables because some of the things that I'm hearing that are against vegetables are compelling, but yet, I know that 95% of medical community and science community thinks vegetables are the greatest.

Ben:  Well, it's the idea of the fact that, yeah, they are rich in micronutrients and flavonols and polyphenols but they have all these built-in plant defense mechanisms in them that may do a number on the gut like lectins and glutens and phytic acids and mineral inhibitors and things like that. And, even a high amount of raw roughage fiber can contribute to gastric inflammation or diverticulitis or things along those lines. 

But, the fact is, and I've said this before on the podcast, just don't be an idiot about the food that you eat. If you were doing carnivore, you wouldn't just jump out of a tree with a knife in your teeth like a pirate and try to wrestle a deer to the ground and eat the meat raw. No, you'd have to shoot it ethically in the vitals, process it, smoke it, sous vide it, cook it, and basically render that meat digestible. And, it's the same with plants. Yeah, you're supposed to rinse and soak quinoa for 12 hours before you eat it and you're supposed to ferment and soak and sprout seeds and nuts and do a sourdough bread to deactivate a lot of the phytates in wheat and lower the gluten content and pre-digest some of the carbohydrates. And, this whole idea of slow food prep, especially when it comes to plant matter, is something that renders the plants digestible and less harmful.

We have the average person doing giant kale smoothies and eating the standard non-fermented wheat bread and not cooking their quinoa correctly and not sprouting their seeds and nuts, yeah, that person could technically feel better just going carnivore because they're not taking the time to actually render vegetables digestible. But, I think it comes down to more smart eating and actually making sure that you make vegetables digestible. So, I don't do the big raw kale smoothies and giant ass salads for lunch anymore, but I still do a lot of pureed and steamed and blended vegetables, vegetables that are low in oxalates. I'll do a lot of underground storage organs like pumpkins and parsnips and carrots and beets, sweet potatoes, yams, purple potatoes, things like that as carbohydrate sources. And, if I do seeds and nuts, in many cases, they are soaked or they're sprouted. When I do vegetables, a lot of times I am doing sprouting in jars or using these countertop sprouters or in some way rendering the vegetables digestible.

And yeah, when I'm out at a steakhouse, I'll occasionally just order standard salad off the menu or whatever. But, this idea of thinking about whether or not the vegetables that you're eating have been treated properly is a good way to go. But, don't get me wrong, you can do strict nose-to-tail carnivore and be healthy your entire life in most situations, but the fact that it's so societally restrictive and the fact that God covered this planet with so many amazing foods that you could eat if you weren't a dummy about it dictates to me that it's just more fun to be an omnivore in my opinion.

Dallas:  That's really good. That's really helpful. Yeah. I found that doing smoothies actually helped me a little bit. I used to just eat a huge salad and I wouldn't feel great. I'm like, “Why is that? This is the healthiest food out there.” And then, when I started eating it as a smoothie where I just take spinach and put a little apple cider vinegar in it, put a little cinnamon in it, kind of put even some healthy oils into it, I didn't have the same bloating and issues that I used to have. The other thing was, and this is I think still a good practice is that if you do eat vegetables to maybe not have a bunch of vegetables with your main course unless you're at someone's house because I had heard this. It was Dr. Berg who again I'm not saying I agree with him on everything but he was saying, “Do you ever feel bloated after a healthy meal?” And, I'm like, “Yes, yes.” So, sometimes it's because you're trying to eat the chicken, the sweet potato, and the vegetables all at once and your body's trying to digest all these different types of food sources at once. So, maybe consider just eating the vegetables separately maybe 30 minutes, 60 minutes. And, that made a big difference for me.

So, right now, I'm not eating vegetables just because I'm trying something new and experimenting a little bit, but I have found that when I was eating vegetables, I got helped a lot by separating them from my main course time-wise and then blending them instead of trying to have these huge big leafy green vegetables on a plate. It just didn't process as well.

Ben:  Yeah. And, the obvious hack a lot of people use is activated charcoal or something like this. And, even though I'm not a big fan of a lot of pharmaceuticals or OTCs — and, I use this a lot when I'm on a plane because stuff expands in your stomach when you're on a plane. I mean, anybody who's been out on plane and had a meal you know you can get bloating and pressure and gases. These simethicone tablets, those things work like gangbusters for relieving bloating almost instantly. I mean, that's just the standard stuffing by Walgreens or CVS or on Amazon. If I'm at a party or a dinner and I just know I'm going to have vegetables and fermentable foods and FODMAPs, I always have a little packet of that in my fanny pack and it's just standard simethicone and there's nothing like that to just sop up gas and keep you from any type of embarrassing situations if you are going to go outside your diet. So, it's a good hack for people who don't want to peel the paint so to speak.

I got to ask you one other question that might be related to FODMAPs because every time I go to the Mediterranean or to Dubai or Israel you're eating hummus and [01:16:07] _____, and lentils and beans and yogurts and just about everything that would cause gas and bloating and discomfort, yet it's such great cuisine. Do you actually or have you in doing the “The Chosen” traveled to Israel or Galilee or Jerusalem or places where Jesus visited — and, it's kind of a selfish question honestly because I'm really wanting to go back there after not having been for a few years because I used to, well, I think the Israeli Chamber of Commerce used to think it was a Jew because my name is Benjamin Greenfield and so they would they would sign me up for these blogging tours of spas and foodie locations and health clubs and gyms. It was fantastic. I went there a few times, did a lot of writing, but I never did a Holy Land tour like Jerusalem and some of the places where Jesus and the disciples visited. So, I'm curious A, have you spent much time in Israel? And B, do you change your diet up much when you go to a place like that?

Dallas:  So, I have been to Israel, yes. I did it a couple years ago just in preparation for the show and I'll be going again. It's extraordinary. And, I had a very powerful experience there with God, and just for sure as someone whose life is dedicated to Jesus and my show is about Jesus now, as you mentioned in the intro, you don't have to be a believer that Jesus was the son of God to still appreciate the show or appreciate the stories of Christ. But, going to Israel and seeing the history of it especially when I'm making a show that is currently considered to be kind of the definitive portrayal, it's not only important but very impactful. When I did go there, I did end up having kind of a gas fest because I was having so much of their hummus. When I go to Greece or Middle East or whatever and they have the best hummus in the world, and so I think I just overeat hummus because hummus has the beans or the —

Ben:  Yeah, chickpeas.

Dallas:  Chickpeas. Yeah, chickpeas. Yeah, sorry. Chickpeas, yeah. So, I've learned hummus in moderation is better for those around me than just having a little bit. But, it was so good there. When I travel, I will say that's the hardest for me to maintain a diet partially because of societal just being with friends, you don't want to be the guy who's refusing to enjoy something with everybody else like a good health. Even if it's a mildly healthy pizza, I just don't want to be that guy who's like, “No, no, sorry, I only eat meat.” Because I'm such a creature of habit when it comes to diet and exercise that when I'm traveling, I'm not good at exercising. I try to get in steps. I try not to binge too much, but yeah, when I go to a country, especially I'm like, “I'm not going to be here and only eat the food that I can get” —

Ben:  Right, you miss out a lot on the culture too.

Dallas:  Exactly. Mediterranean diets are great too. Even if you're keto, you can enjoy a lot of the good things there. But yeah, I tend to be like I'm in a local culture, I want to try their best thing. And, I'm not going to go to Italy and avoid bread and pasta, it's not going to happen.

Ben:  Yeah.

Dallas:  And, what you find is, too, you go to these other countries sometimes like Italy, and the way they do their bread and their pasta is different than the way we do it here.

Ben:  Less glyphosate, there's some rumblings. I don't know if this is true about the genetic modification of the wheat having less concentrated gluten, et cetera. Maybe it's because you're less stressed when you travel, so you get a little more blood flow to the stomach if you're kind of out of your daily work schedule. But either way, I agree. I can eat a lot more broadly expanded diet, especially from a carbohydrate standpoint when I'm traveling. 

And then, there's also the idea that a lot of these travel hot spots like near the equator, the body based on vitamin D production actually does a better job processing without high rises in blood glucose, things like wheat, citrus fruits, et cetera. So, I'll do a lot more fruit, a lot more carbohydrates, a lot more potatoes, things like that when I'm traveling especially to sunny climates, and feel just fine with that type of protocol. And, I'm kind of the same way, Dallas, with fitness and travel. My go-to is I walk everywhere. If I got get anywhere, it's less than 3 miles, I walk there and then my only metric when I travel is I have to do 20 to 30 minutes of something that's a little bit more difficult at some point during the day. And, usually for me, that's elastic bands or BFR bands or something like that in my hotel room. So, I don't put myself under the pressure of having to go and hunt down a gym when I travel which can be stressful and time-consuming, but I tell myself that I can do this, even with a lot of decision-making fatigue and tiredness from travel or whatever. I know I can do 20 to 30 minutes of push-ups, squats, lunges, et cetera, in my hotel room or in my Airbnb. And, at that point, the only thing I can tell myself is, “Alright, did that, now all I got to do is just walk everywhere I go and I'll be fine.” And, I stay pretty fit when I travel is doing that.

Dallas:  Yeah. I mean, you're better than I am, but I'm working on it, I'm working on, yeah, like you just said, the stuff in your hotel room because I just tend to be all or nothing. So, when I travel, I'm like, “Well, I'm not in my usual environment now and I'm going to just enjoy myself.” But, I end up coming back not feeling as good. And then, when I have to gear back up into my workouts, it's hard or something. There's nothing like you just said, there's nothing. If anything, it helps me enjoy my time bit more if I can just slip in 20 to 30 minutes of something. Yeah. And, like you, I do try to walk everywhere. That makes a big difference.

Ben:  Yeah. Well, man, I feel we could talk for hours about all this stuff. But, last question I have for you is, if people want to watch this show after hearing a little bit more about the man behind it, “The Chosen,” are you guys still, and I have to admit, again I watched the first season and a couple episodes of the second season with my sons, but are you still making episodes?

Dallas:  Yeah. Yeah, no, season three we recently finished filming and launched in theaters November 18th, and then it comes to streaming. The thing about watching “The Chosen” is I mean, Season 1 is on a bunch of different platforms, so you can go find it on Amazon. You can find it on Netflix. You can find it on a bunch of places. But, Season 3 is exclusive to “The Chosen” app. So, if you just look up “The Chosen” wherever you get your apps, here's the cool thing about it. I'm not giving a big plug here, but it's totally free and easy, so you don't have to subscribe to anything and you don't have to give your email address if you don't want to. So, if you're listening and you're going, “Well, I'm not a big Jesus guy, but I do like good television, and I am intrigued by history.” And obviously, this is right now, I say this with no arrogance, but it's one of the most popular shows in the world. Over 100 million people have watched it and yet it's the most famous show no one's heard about because it's not on Netflix and because it's a Jesus show, it's just not on the radar in the mainstream as much. But, if you're intrigued by the idea, you just look up “The Chosen” wherever you get your apps. And, it's something that we could talk about some other time, but we've done something really interesting which it's completely outside the system. You don't have to subscribe to anything. We make our own rules. We control all the content. We're owned by nobody.

And, our first season was crowdfunded. I mean, we generated over $10 million from 19,000 people who invest Season 1 shattering the all-time crowdfunding record based on a short film I did for my church four years ago. And so, it's a show that's at least demanding to be taken seriously. And, if you're interested in it, it doesn't cost you anything so you don't have to go through a bunch of protocols and we're not going to try to sell you or convert you to Christianity or anything like that, it's just it's easy to give it a try. So, just look up “The Chosen” in your app store or on your TV apps or whatever, and are easy to find.

Ben:  Yeah. And, it puts you in a good mood. It's just like the humor and it's not just some kind of a bible-thumping religious show, it's like that, what's one show that somebody mentioned to me I should watch? Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso. And, I watched one episode. Again, I don't get into TV shows that much, but I watch them, I'm like, “Oh, this has a good vibe to it.” It's nice and positive and upbeat and humorous and doesn't have a bunch of violence and all the rigmarole that you see in a lot of these shows. So yeah, I really liked all the episodes of “The Chosen” that I saw. And so, I'll link to them for anybody who wants to go do your treadmill, dumbbell, death marches while watching a decent show, this would be the one to check out. So, I'll link to everything because obviously Dallas and I talk about a ton of little things. I know there's all sorts of little toys and things you want to look into, so I'll put together some really fantastic shownotes for anybody listening in. And, Dallas will send me his video, two of his four moves for the low back and I'll put all that at BenGreenfieldLife.com/Dallas. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/D-A-L-L-A-S.

Dallas, this has been super fun, man. I'm actually really glad we hopped on a call because I wasn't quite sure if a film director would have that much to talk about in the realm of biohacking, fitness, and health. But, this is just a blast.

Dallas:  Yeah, man. I really appreciate it. And, I can't wait to listen to it because I'm googling and giving myself notes who you're mentioning a few things, but I'm like, “I got to get these links as well” because some of these things are really reliable, so I appreciate it.

Ben:  Yeah. Well, you got my number too, so you can text me anytime if you have questions about any of this stuff. And, for everybody listening in, again, it's BenGreenfieldLife.com/Dallas. And, I'm Ben Greenfield along with the creator of “The Chosen,” Dallas Jenkins signing out from BenGreenfieldLife.com. Have an amazing week.

Alright, this is cool, but you want to pay attention because it's coming up right around the corner on Friday, December 2nd. You're going to get a chance to join me and some really powerful healing physicians down in Sarasota, Florida. This is a live event. It goes from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. I'll be there, my friend, and a brilliant former podcast guest, The Doctor Strange of Medicine, Dr. John Lieurance is going to be there, HBOT USA, Dr. Jason and Melissa Sonners are going to be there with their Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Brian Richards of SaunaSpace, Harry Paul, one of John's friends who I recently met who's also an amazing healer for an event that's super unique. It's all based around the elements: earth, fire, air, and water, with a ton of treatments and technologies and modalities, and very unique biohacks that you're going to get exposed to during the entire event.

Basically, what I mean by that is when it comes to air, you're going to learn about hyperbaric oxygen, and ozone, and air filtration, everything you need to know to upgrade your air. When it comes to earth, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, earthing, grounding, a host of other ways that you can use the power of the planet to enhance your health, your sleep, your recovery, your muscle gain, your fat loss, a lot more water. You'll learn about proper water filtration, how to upgrade your water, hydrogenated water, structured water, basically soup to nuts, everything you need to know about water and how to apply it in your home and your office and your life. And then, finally fire, is a fun one. Lots of cryotherapy, a little bit of ice too, breathwork, inner fire practices, a ton of stuff when it comes to introducing the element of fire into your life.

So, this event is super unique. John and I have been working on it behind the scenes and it has come together amazingly. There's even a VIP experience. If you sign up for the VIP experience, you could come two days early or stay a few days after the event, and basically, you will get all the medical protocols customized by Dr. John and his staff if you claim one of those 10 VIP spots. That'll include IV methylene blue, laser treatments, John's really unique bliss release, which is basically an endonasal adjustment, which is essentially a chiropractic adjustment through your nose for your entire skull, which if you've had TBI or concussion or allergies or things like that in the past, it totally reboots that entire system. There's going to also be ozone treatments, Myers' IV cocktails, exosome treatments, IV laser, access to a CVAC machine. And, John's entire facility is going to be at your beck and call if you got one of the VIP tickets.

And then, we're also probably going to have a little bit of a party later on in the evening after this event. The whole thing is going to be a pinch-me-I'm-dreaming full-on cutting-edge of biohacking experience. And, I'm just now letting the world know about it so spots are going to fill up pretty fast. Space is limited, but if you want to get in now, here's how. You go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements-Event. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements-Event. It's in Sarasota, Florida. Again, it's all-day Friday, December 2nd. I would come in early and stay after. If you just want to try out all the crazy modalities there. I don't know how fast those VIP tickets are going to sell out, but either way, this thing is going to be absolutely amazing. I just can't wait, like I'm pinching myself, can't wait to be on the plane to head down there and do this. So, check it out, BenGreenfieldLife/Elements-Event. And, I'll see you there, I hope.

More than ever these days, people like you and me need a fresh entertaining, well-informed, and often outside-the-box approach to discovering the health, and happiness, and hope that we all crave. So, I hope I've been able to do that for you on this episode today. And, if you liked it or if you love what I'm up to, then please leave me a review on your preferred podcast listening channel wherever that might be and just find the Ben Greenfield Life episode. Say something nice. Thanks so much. It means a lot.

 

 

Last year, my sons and I watched a the first season TV series called “The Chosen“. It's basically the story of Jesus and his “chosen” disciples told in a very, very compelling manner.

Imagine this…

A charismatic fisherman struggling with debt.

A troubled woman wrestling with demons.

A gifted accountant ostracized from his family and people.

In The Chosen, you can see how Jesus reaches each of these and more as He works His first miracles and embarks on His ministry to change the world. You see Him through the eyes of those who knew Him, in a very joyful, sometimes funny and personable way.

While speaking with a friend about The Chosen, he commented to me that he knew the creator of the project, and the guy actually happened to be into fitness, recovery, mind-body connection, biohacking and many of the healthy living subjects we often discuss on this show. So he made the introduction to the man himself: Dallas Jenkins.

Dallas Jenkins, son of celebrated Left Behind author Jerry Jenkins, first produced the independent feature Hometown Legend at the age of 25 and shepherded it to distribution by Warner Brothers. In the nearly 20 years since, he has directed and produced over a dozen feature and short films for companies such as Universal, Lionsgate, Pureflix, Hallmark Channel, and Amazon. He is now the creator of the largest crowd-funded media project of all-time, a multi-season series about the life of Christ entitled The Chosen.

During our discussion, you'll discover:

-Dallas Jenkins’s morning routine…09:00

18:29 – Taking care of your feet and backward walking

-How to get through a sleep deprived day and late night work…29:11

-The use of nootropics, smart drugs and wakefulness promoting agents…43:51

  • Dallas does not have a need to use any of those
  • Uses high fat and high protein diet
  • Nootopia (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
    • doing nootropic formulations and customizing them
  • Theobromine and Paraxanthine
  • The movie Limitless was inspired by narcoleptic agent Modafinil 

-How to focus and not get easily distracted?…47:52

-Transition from Keto to Carnivore diet…54:25

  • Dallas has been on a keto diet for 5 years
  • Started because of his problems with gasses
  • BBBE Challenge – 30 days of just bacon, butter, beef and eggs
  • Dr. Ken Berry – keto and carnivore influencer on YouTube
  • Intrigued by Paul Saladino's idea to eliminate everything else for 30 days
    • Felt fantastic
  • Podcast with Dr. Paul Saladino
  • Intermittent fasting
  • Introducing carbs through fruit
  • Long-term ketosis may impact health, the best solution is cyclic ketosis
  • Carbohydrates are good to take in the evenings for good sleep
  • FODMAP diet – game changer for bloating and gasses
  • Food allergy tests
  • Cyrex
    • Provides very accurate food allergy tests
    • IgG plus IGE recommended
  • Levels of LDL, HDL and triglycerides in carnivore diet
    • Higher level of LDL is not an issue

-Ben’s stand on vegetables…1:13:46

  • Vegetables must be made digestible
  • Fermenting, soaking, and sprouting seeds
  • Cooking instead of eating fresh
  • Choosing the right vegetables
  • Dr. Berg’s advice is to eat vegetables separately
  • Simethicone tablets

-Dallas Jenkins’s travels to Israel and Middle East…1:15:59

  • Visiting Israel was a wonderful experience
  • Some of the food caused gasses, especially hummus
  • Traveling makes maintaining a diet very difficult
  • Dallas just enjoys local food and doesn’t exercise when he travels
  • Ben also eats local food, excises a little in a hotel room and tries to walk everywhere
  • BFR bands

-“The Chosen” TV Series…1:21:30

  • Season 3 has been recently finished
  • First two seasons are extremely popular
  • It can be found easily in any app store and watched for free

-And much more…

Upcoming Events:

  • Elements Of Vitality with Dr. John Lieurance, Ben Greenfield & Friends: December 2, 2022, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST.

Dr. John Lieurance & Ben Greenfield offer a rare experience to explore the elements of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water with unique treatments, technologies, modalities, and biohacks to represent the healing powers of each element individually. Learn more here.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Dallas Jenkins:

– Podcasts And Articles:

– Other Resources:

Episode sponsors:

Hiya: Get your kids the full-body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults. We've worked out a special deal with Hiya for their best-selling children's vitamin. Receive 50% off your first order. To claim this deal you must go to hiyahealth.com/BEN. This deal is not available on gltheir regular website.

Essentia: Essentia organic mattresses are the only mattress to score best on eliminating all sleep-interrupting stimulants. Experience Essentia for yourself and save an additional $100 on your mattress purchase using code BENVIP at myessentia.com/bengreenfield.

Organifi (Gold): Get the restful sleep you need with the most soothing ingredients! Gold is a delicious superfood tea that contains powerful superfoods and mushrooms to help you sleep and recover so you can wake up feeling refreshed and energized. Go to organifi.com/Ben for 20% off your order.

Joovv: Get an exclusive discount on your first order of my favorite in-home light therapy devices. Just go Joovv.com/ben and apply code BEN.

Kion Aminos: Aminos are building blocks for muscle recovery, reduced cravings, better cognition, immunity, and more. Go to https://getkion.com/discount/ben10?redirect=%2Fcollections%2Fbens-favorites&utm_source=bengreenfield&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=website-bens-fav-collection&utm_content=discountapplied to receive 20% off on monthly deliveries and 10% on one-time purchases.

Elements of Vitality Event: Join me in Sarasota Florida, with Dr. John Lieurance on Friday, Dec 2 from 8:00-5:00 for a rare experience to explore the elements of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water with unique treatments, technologies, modalities, and biohacks to represent the healing powers of each element individually. Claim your spot today at bengreenfieldlife.com/elements-event.

 

Ask Ben a Podcast Question

One thought on “[Transcript] – The #1 Exercise For Low Back Pain, 4 Must-Do Exercises, Biohacking Late Night & Shift Work, Keto To Carnivore Transition & Much More With “The Chosen” Creator Dallas Jenkins,

  1. Bill Haley says:

    I understood that Dallas was going to supply a video that demonstrated his “4 exercises”….

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