Episode 582: How Constant Health Optimization Makes Us Less Happy and Healthy

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(upbeat music) Hi everybody, welcome to another, I guess quasi solo episode of Habits and Household, because I am joined by my very favorite foilor, foil in the voice in your head.

Yes, Shawty Suisa, who I just kind of gab with for about 15, 20 minutes on these episodes, and just kind of do a hot take of some kind. And so she's joining us again, but before we even get into the episode,

I wanna make sure I tell you guys all this,

because I always forget, please guys,

if you have not subscribed to this podcast, either through any platform. I don't know if it could be Spotify, iTunes, it could be YouTube, I don't care. Please press the button.

It makes a massive difference in the algorithm, and it really helps, and I've been extremely remiss to tell people this for what six years. So, true. Maybe we should, if you guys listen to this,

that takes two seconds, and I will greatly appreciate it. So with that being said, let's move on to the episode, Shawty, thank you for being here. - Thank you so much for having me. You're so welcome.

Okay, I wanna talk to you about something that I think is, I'm just gonna say it,

“and then you can tell me what your thoughts are, okay?”

- Okay. - So this episode is gonna be about, do you think Optimizing is making us less happy? So funny 'cause I was just thinking about buying and ordering, and in my mind that to me.

- Yeah, I was like, do I want to do that? 'Cause I honestly hate walking around with my phone, and much rather like leave it, but I wanna track my steps, but you know, I track my steps,

is that the gateway drags are tracking every single thing in the world. - Hold on a second. Why can't you track your steps on your watch? - I guess then you're gonna have a watch.

- No, you can work. Like I track my steps on my, on my Apple Watch, but this is the thing. - But I don't have one, I don't buy an Apple Watch. - Like listen, you know what?

That's true, it's either one or a regular one. I guess the same thing. I guess this is my point, right? Like I'm a big optimizer, right?

“Like this whole podcast, my whole life is about like,”

how to make you better, even 1% better, you know, in a year, right? Like how do we make our physical health better? How do we make our mental health better? How do we make our emotional spiritual everything health better?

But I do think that it's becoming such an obsession in the world right now, or maybe it's, I'm not sure, actually, if it's the world I'm in, or if it's really just like really becoming the big trend of like outside of my own vortex.

Because honestly, like when I watched things everywhere, see people, everyone's wearing an or a ring. Everyone's wearing an Apple Watch. Everyone is, you know, are doing these things, which I think is good to an extent.

But where is the line of it taking over and controlling your life to a place where you are kind of optimizing everything and trying to hack everything to get a certain score, where you're not having, like the hat,

like your happiness is now like not even being considered, or you're like, just, or you're overall, just, you know, just being is not being. Everything is now like gamified to a place where it's stressful.

You know, it's just thing that there's like, you have to find a balance. Like what's healthy optimization and what's psychosis? What's gonna make you go crazy? Well, I feel like that's the, there's a,

it's hard to find. I mean, Brian Johnson or Johnson or Johnson. Oh, that's a really good point. I mean, he just got this whole auto immune disease. Well, this is the most of his optimization.

Let's talk about it. That's a really good point. So Brian, Brian Johnson spends

what $2 million a year on his, like his longevity, his health.

Now, you know, you could argue,

maybe he always had some of, maybe had it,

but it was, but it was, she gave him the book. Okay, I heard him on an interview saying that maybe, you know, of course he's gonna say this, but like, maybe it would have been worse if it wasn't him doing all these things.

Or did all of these cookie extremes create it? Like, it's like the chicken or the egg, you don't know. But I will say this. And this is what I think that like, this is the thing I really believe is honestly.

And I think this is like such a cliche. Oh, everything in moderation. But no, the people I know who are honestly, like the most healthy or lived the longest, don't really do any of this stuff.

They like kind of like, they know how they sleep. You know when you wake up, if you slept well or not. You looking at your or a ring or your whoop or your phone or whatever thing you're using to tell you is like kind of like becoming like silly at this point, right?

“Like you need to know if it's, if your sleep score is 71”

or 86, is it gonna, what is it gonna do?

Is it how's it gonna change your life? So she's gonna hurt your life. Because now you're gonna be like, oh, it's gonna make you frantic and stressful. Like, how does that number change what you do the next night?

Oh, oh, I was only at a 60. So therefore, maybe my room isn't dark enough. Maybe I should go sleep in the closet. Like honestly, or like, oh, maybe my room isn't cold enough. Like are you gonna constantly just,

you know, modify what, like what your circumstance is? That's even more annoying. And it's more of a headache. And I had you live like that. Why are people who are like healthy wearing glucose monitors?

Like it's one thing if you have diabetes. But if you don't have diabetes, why is everybody in their dog on a GLP1 to lose weight? Now the baseline is become like, now if you lose weight naturally,

it's kind of like, it's become obsolete, right?

You walk around, everyone's thin. But their skinny thin, they're not muscular, they're not maybe healthy.

“My point is, we have all of these mechanisms in place”

to seem optimized, but really probably in the inside. Maybe we, we on the outside, externally look optimized. But I would be curious to know how optimized are we really inside in our head,

in our physicality, in all these things? If you're just skinny, but you have no muscle on your body, well, that's not so great either. If you are sleeping, okay, but you're constantly thinking about your sleep, well, that's not a great

for your mental health either. - Yeah, like I feel like everyone is so, it's become so extreme and over the top, because it's a trillion, multi-trillion dollar business and industry, and this is become what people are now.

This is where the money is. And so the where the money is, more products, more technology, more everything, more businesses are being based around how do we get you to spend, and how do we get a scare you to think that you need this

to be healthier? - Yes, I think the big question through all of that is like, why are people optimizing so much if they're not also enjoying the life that they're optimizing for?

“So, if you're enjoying life is about just optimization,”

but you're not actually spending any of that time enjoying the optimizing that you're doing, then it's like, what do you even optimize for? - Well, I know, I make a joke all the time. It's like, all right, I'm working out eating properly,

getting my hair done, doing all these things. So, I'm really fit, and I'm doing all the things, and then I say, "Home and Watch TV," and like, like, it bought myself. - Right.

- Alone. But I think that's become the funny joke even on social media, all these memes, you know? I'm working out crushing it, getting super fit to stay home alone, to watch Netflix.

- Right. - Literally, that is literally what's gone on. - Right, I think it's like, no one's even enjoying, there's no one's like socializing, because a big piece of it is because it's going to disrupt

their lives by the scene of being healthy. - 'Cause then you're going out to eat, maybe you're having a drink, maybe you're doing this. - Well, you want to go to gym in the morning. - Right.

- So, like, where is the healthy balance? So, you're not going to go with your friends to dinner, because you don't want to eat that food. So, then you'll stay home. You're not going to go up because you want to wake up

early so you can get to the gym. You're not going to eat that piece of cake for your husband's birthday, your child's birthday. Why? Because then your glucose will spike,

and everything is like now, because you're scared of not being optimized. - Yes, and it's also, you know, they saw, don't quote me on this, but I did see a study on Instagram,

you know, the glorious academic journal that we love to read from. And on Instagram, academia, it said that, you know, studies showed that people who were just told that their sleep scores

were lower felt that their sleep was worse, and were significantly more tired than people who were told that their sleep scores were higher. - 100%. - And I strongly believe that because I know people

who are just absolutely psychotic about their sleep scores.

sometimes I got a good night's sleep sometimes I don't, I don't, like, whatever, like, next day comes, next day goes, you know? Like, so, I'm fucking true. - Like, okay, if I just tell myself, I'm fine,

like, I'm so fine, like, I'm gonna have a wake. I'm here, I'm ready to go, what do we got to do? You know what I mean? Like, just keep it moving. - I really miss, I miss the 90s.

I always say this, I miss living in the 90s

and the early 2000s when life was normal. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I didn't wear the, I didn't have an oring or, well, I just, like, did my thing. And if you're right, if I slept well,

I slept, if I did it, well, the next night I'll see better, you know, I, like, when the house was perfectly aesthetic for Instagram. - That was amazing how it ended. - Right, I was scrolling, doom scrolling, like,

watching strangers who'll never know, you know, talk about whatever is trending right now or trying to, like, capture the algorithm in a video that I won't even remember. It, like, in three seconds from then.

Like, how many people here, remember any real that they saw five minutes ago? - Oh, I have such a good memory for real. - Oh, I remember several. - Oh, I remember several. - I remember so much real.

- I remember, it's alarming, actually. - But, you know what I'm gonna tell you this. If they're funny, that's one thing. But I think most of them are not, and also what I miss in the 2000s is socializing

and human connection. You know, if I call somebody, they're freaked out. Like, oh my God, like, this is what happens, right? - Such a phone person though. - Oh, you're such a phone person.

- I am just like, like, our long phone call type of person. - No, I'm a phone, by the way, calling someone is how you connect to somebody. I don't give a shit. - But it's so easy, you know, hard to talk on text.

“- By the way, you have to stop what you're doing.”

Kex the person, the conversation is so, - It's so damn good. - It's so damn good. - I stopped answering everybody. I don't answer, I just can't, I hate annoying me. - So you don't, I am the person that if I text you

and you respond, I will call you. - Yeah, I know that. - I love, I will do that. - By the way, I get shit for that all the time and what is my biggest pet peeve is when I call the person

and they don't answer, I'm like, "Good, I know you're there." - hilarious. - You literally just texted me. - You just texted me. - I love that you call.

- My favorite thing is that I can just, I know I can only just call you. - I love that. - There's some people who just, you know, they're just weird on the phone.

- I just answered the phone. - 100% like I'm telling you guys now, if you're my friend, if you have my phone number, if you want, if you have to ask a question, please do me a favor, call me.

All of my friends, all of my sponsors, all of my partnerships, like literally, they probably think I'm a crazy person because most people like have to send the email and then like, you know, schedule a phone call

and then go on to a zoo and charge me crazy. Just ask me the two questions, pick up the phone,

we can go back and forth for a second.

Yeah, it's so much easier. - Just pick up the phone and this could be done in two seconds.

“Like, what is, what does it, you need to know?”

What is it that you want? - Yes, no, good, maybe, okay, let's move it. Like, let's keep a goal and like, you know, keep it moving. The amount of like time wasted

because of all of this rigger morale of like, having to text someone and then the DM and then scheduling, like, anyway, the optimization, like, by the way, calling people is actually optimizing

your communications, which is hilarious. - I was gonna say, you know what, it's like, this is a great way to optimize your communication. - The best optimizing, if you're using it. - It is.

I was gonna also say, it is really important topic, but I also think because you're so in the midst of everything, it's like, it's all consuming for your world right now. Like, I don't think the whole world is on GLP ones. However, I think all of our stuff,

no, I feel a lot of people are more people to keep things. - People and Kansas, like lots of people and Kansas, you know what, I'm gonna tell you something, Shawnee, yes. And I'm gonna tell you why, because it's become commoditized.

You can now get a GLP one. You can get like a tri-seminator. - We're in LA, but we're in LA. - But we're in LA, you know how quickly people buy LA to kind of stop just LA?

- But it's LA, it's Miami, it's New York. It's places where these things get bought into faster. I don't know that it's really touched like all of middle America. - But this is what I will say, you know?

How about this? This is what I will say.

“I think anyone has expendable income, even a little bit.”

They are, they are. - They're considering it. - They're considering it. - Or considering it. - That's right, right.

- Okay, that's fair. Okay, so I'm not saying people who don't have money to buy dinner or lunch for their children or on it. - Right, but more affluent city dwellers, I would say, yes.

- Okay, so more affluent city dwellers for sure. - Fine. - I would also say, though, that it's becoming very, very cheap to be on one because they're making it now. Like you can buy, like a cup of coffee,

and then you can also buy your tray's appetite or your ready-to-tied, or roasted all, so people don't give a shit. That's the thing is like, I know,

I never bought the code vaccine.

I just like, that's the whole other state, but you know what I did? - But I also have not done the GLPs either, and like, I gained a lot of weight this year, and so then I had to lose a lot of weight.

And everybody was telling me to get on them, but I just literally was like, I feel like I have so many problems,

that I would rather have a Coke Zero,

than put in some random shot, because that's like, you know, you give and take,

“like you have to, you have for the Coke Zero chemical,”

I give up the potential risk of like, you know, something going wrong over here. - Do you know what's hilarious for me? - A hundred percent. I was like, people will shut new

for drinking a diet Coke, but you can, you can like, you could be, but I've got to show yourself the web. - You can show yourself with 97 peptides from China. - Yeah, they have no idea what's in there.

- No idea what's in there. - And that's okay. - I just have no idea. - Because all people care about is being skinny. - Right, right.

- But yet they can, they can stand or they're so boxed to be like, oh my God, you actually had a diacove, which can not believe you. - By the way, wanting to be skinny is actually why I like Coke Zero, otherwise I'd go for regular Coke with Larry,

so we each have our vise, like you guys get a Zempie, and I got my Coke Zero out of the eye. - It's like a bunch of everything is like, this world is so ass-back word, it is unbelievable. And like, I just find it to be just like I said,

with all this, people are more miserable than ever, which we're gonna talk about in the next episode. - Okay, I wanna add a one quote, "The Working To Live" slash "Living To Work". It's the same premise, right?

So many people are so caught up making money, so many people are so caught up optimizing their health. We're all caught up, everybody's caught up doing all these things to better their life, but they're not actually enjoying

“the better life that they're trying to better, right?”

- I really, I really, I really, really believe that to be true. - So big thing, the real big thing. It also is why, like you know, growing up,

I always want to be a billionaire, which is great.

Fine, I still do, in theory, but I also don't wanna have to go about my life in the way that a lot of people who have become billionaires have gone about their life. I don't wanna sacrifice living.

That's crazy, I don't wanna end up with so much money and no memories. Like I just don't want that, I don't wanna end up with the hottest body in the hottest face in the world, but like no happiness, no memories, no joy, no stories,

well, it's just a lot. Like this nose job, now I can't really breathe well, which is fine, fair play, like I look a little bit better, but like I look a little bit better. I don't look like a million times better.

I'm not like, oh my God, she's just out of nowhere. Like, I don't know, now I can't breathe. Now playing tennis is harder, now working out is harder,

“now partying is harder, everything's harder, right?”

- I love that, I think, 'cause it worth it. - I really love that you said this,

because I think that's like a really, like there's always a cost,

always to everything, you know, there's always a pro and a con to everything. So like, that's really interesting, because I wanna talk about that in the next episode, so let's hold that, okay?

You guys, that's the rant for today. Let us know your comments. Do you really think that we're getting optimized to the place of being completely out of touch unhappy? Or do you think it's a good thing?

Let me know in the comments, please subscribe, and always, always, thank you for listening, and we'll see you again soon. Bye-bye.