030 - The Science of Looking & Feeling Your Best w/ Dr. Nestor Rodriguez - The Health Movement Podcast

[00:00:04] Welcome everybody to another episode of the Health Movement Podcast. This is episode number 30 and we do, I know we've said in the past a very special guest, but this is incredibly a very special guest that we have on with us today. Before I introduce him though, I just want to say that Tim is again not able to make it tonight, but that's because he has switched careers so he's super excited. He started recently as a firefighter EMT.

[00:00:33] So that position has kind of taken up some of his evening. So he's eager to get back here and he misses everybody, but he did want me to give you all a shout out and it is for a good reason. So he switched careers and he's super excited for that. Oh, I'm Derek. I am a certified personal trainer, teacher of over 20 years. And as I usually start the show, I say we're not doctors. So before we start anything new, this is our opinion, consult your physician.

[00:01:01] But today, all I can say is I'm not a doctor, but our guest is Dr. Nesta Rodriguez. Super excited to have you on. He went to Yale study molecular, cellular and developmental biology and then went to the doc.

[00:01:18] You get his doctorate of medicine from the University of Wisconsin. And he is now the medical director of the Watertown Regional Medical Center, medical doctor from the Watertown Fire Department and the medical or sorry, medical director. And then the medical director of the company Carbon World Health, which you started with your wife, Ashley. Did I get everything there? You did. You did. So thank you for the opportunity. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:43] Yeah, of course. And I don't mean to sound mean here, but you seem to not do much during the day. How do you fill your time with all the spare time? I'm sure that you have. Yeah, that's what if you were asked, like our business advisors and my mentors are like, when are you going to stop? But I think I've always been driven. So kind of where I came from to where I am now. And so I feel like I'm always busy. People tell me that even my days off or our trips where people want to go hang out.

[00:02:12] I'm always like, what's the next thing? What do I need to do? So and we'll talk about it as part of like why we started Carbon World Health too. That's awesome. What gets most of your focus or have you found a way to kind of decompartmentalize everything and you're able to spread yourself evenly to everything that you're doing?

[00:02:33] Yeah, so I think being an emergency medicine doctor, right, even in the emergency department day to day when I'm working shifts, I have to be able to see everything around me and react to it and anticipate. So that's kind of helped me in my business ventures to bring in like the health aspect, but also the business and then how to unite both to the average client. And so for me, I think I do a pretty good job of like being intentional in my time. So when I'm with family, I'm with family. You know, when I'm in the emergency department, the emergency department, when I'm in business, business.

[00:03:03] But the ultimate goal eventually is to kind of, unfortunately, first time I say it out loud publicly, but tend to kind of step away from the hospital and do more of the business outside of things. I'm not quite there yet. So right now, you know, I spend all my time doing both. And I would say the business and the emergency department are my two biggest kind of ventures right now where I take most of my time. How long have you been in the emergency room? Oh, the emergency department.

[00:03:28] So yeah. So since 2005, now you're saying my time. Yeah. So since 2005, I've been in the emergency department. What are the years? Yeah. So I spent seven of those years, I would say, yes, seven to 10 years, I believe I can count it correctly, in academic medicine. So I was, you know, I was first class on my residency for emergency medicine at University of Wisconsin. They wanted us to kind of trailblaze, set up the program.

[00:03:57] And now it's kind of one of the top programs in the country. I was chief resident and then must have done something right because they kept me on as the assistant program director. So I was in academics. I love teaching, you know, training future doctors and just being kind of realistic with docs. So if like, hey, we carry these titles, but we're still human. So how do I humanize like our profession? And so that took me for several years. And some of my experiences within that is kind of when I when then I started venturing off and saying, hey, we want to create Carbon World Health,

[00:04:27] which then took me away from academics because technically, you know, you can't mix academics with with with with private entrepreneurs. So I went private, you know, the Watertown Regional Medical Center was like, yeah, we'll take you. We'll recruit you. And I have helped build that program. But the idea was because we wanted to create Carbon World Health. And that's kind of left me made me leave academics. I gotcha. And that it looked like it's been around for a little over 10 years.

[00:04:53] It has. We've been working on it for 15 years, but officially, you know, 10 years. I could tell you it started, you know, in my condo back in the day of bringing clients, athletes that we knew and kind of perfecting things. But for us, you know, what we wanted was we noticed a couple of things. So we're a one stop shop for health, fitness and beauty is what we call it. Right. So we wanted to 15 years ago before wellness was a thing, in my opinion. You know, we were trailblazers. People told us like, hey, you shouldn't do it.

[00:05:22] Why are you leaving academics? You have a great career. You know, I was set up to take pretty high titles. But I believed in this concept. And it was because of seeing the downstream effects of people in the emergency department. Right. So you had where we saw people, if you don't take care of yourself or you wait to the last minute or what our reactive health care system does.

[00:05:45] And at the same time, being in emergency medicine during that period, it allowed me to be a doc for some of the professional sports leagues. And what I saw there was these athletes were getting the world given to them. Right. And what we found was, man, there's a gap between those two. And then we looked at executive programs. Right. They were kind of starting up. And if people don't know what that is, it's basically because it's meant not for everyone. Right.

[00:06:12] So that's the issue with it. It's if you make a certain amount of money, if you have a certain title within a business, almost like the C-suite or executive folks. You can go to these programs. Right. Spend three days. They give you everything. And those same doctors the next day would see someone average and not give them that same advice or opinion. So to us, we're like, why? Why is that? Why can't we bring that to everyone? But it wasn't it didn't exist. Right. So we kind of filled that void with carbon where we always joke around.

[00:06:42] If I'm making you healthier, fitter, might as well also make you look good. So hence the concept of bringing it all together on the water. And I like how you mentioned their reactive health care, which is a lot of what we talk about on the show is not necessarily the health care piece, but people usually don't start trying to exercise or eat well until there's a problem, until they see an actual need for it.

[00:07:08] So I imagine you at the ER, aside from accidents and things that, you know, things happen, you can't control them. But I'm sure you see other things where it's a it's a buildup of years of of not eating right or smoking or drinking or things that people people do that have negative effects on their bodies. So I'm guessing that's a lot of what you see as well. Yeah, definitely. I mean, a lot of it, you know, in and to me, I'm all about educating, obviously, coming from that academic side of things.

[00:07:37] I think in health care right now, there's there's these two fields of or two issues. One is as providers, right? We're not understanding what our patients or clients at Carbon, for example, want or need. So we're too stringent as to what the insurance company might say. So let's say, Derek, you're like, hey, I want to talk about hormones. I want to talk about weight loss. We size you up and say you don't need it. It's not for you. Right.

[00:08:03] But then we don't understand that you have podcasts, you have you're listening to all the social media influencers who are telling you you need it. Right. So I tell providers we're in a world where we're doing a disservice to our patients if we're not willing to even have those conversations as to why. Right. And on the flip side, you know, let's say putting myself as a patient. There's two type of people. There's the person that's like, man, I've dug this hole and I can't get out. And any time I've asked help, everyone's telling me you can't do it or you can't afford it.

[00:08:33] Or there's the other type that's like I've been successful in every aspect of my life. I don't care about health right now because I'm grinding out to do different things, which to me, it's you're kind of missing the boat on both ends of it. Right. Because health is the key to make you successful. And I can speak for personal experience where, you know, when I first started my career, I was go, go, go. You know, I didn't grow up from anything. I'm the first one in my family to go to high school, college. So to me, it was like, get my family out.

[00:09:01] I want the American dream and I'm doing it. And I did at such a young age, but at the expense of my health. Right. I was staying late. You know, I would turn to like, you know, that work hard, play hard mentality. And it was go, go, go. But maybe my relationships weren't well. Right. I wasn't sleeping well. I was training in caffeine or energy drinks. I wasn't exercising. And so to me, it's like, how am I preaching this but not doing it?

[00:09:25] And then I started thinking like, man, if I apply the same principles, the same drive, the same optimization I do in my career to my health, my career is going to be 10 times X better and I'm going to feel better when I'm doing it. So that was kind of the turning key for me. So when you talk about, and I'm sorry, I'm just taking notes while you're talking here. So I'm thinking while you're talking, you mentioned when you first started off like the grind where, you know, you're working hard, you got to get everything done.

[00:09:55] So in your mind, is there like a happy medium between, because you got to work, you're not going to accomplish anything unless you put the work in. But the focus on getting your mind right, your body right and all that, you get so much more out of your abilities when your mind is at that point.

[00:10:15] So how do we find that fine line between like, I need seven hours of sleep, I need eight hours of sleep as opposed to, you know, this is due tomorrow. I got to bust my butt and get this done sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. So I think it's the mindset first, right? So and then it's how do we get people to think in that right mindset? Because so, for example, there's so many things that we invest for our career.

[00:10:40] There's courses, there's conferences, there's mentors, counselors, you name it, right? But when it comes to yourself or health, we don't think of that. We just think of doctors and I'm just going to go see them when I'm sick or I don't care about my health. I still look good or, you know, I'm OK. Almost make it as a proud moment where I could go in two hours of sleep and still be successful, which a lot of people do. Right.

[00:11:05] But it's not till you realize if you had that same mindset in your finances, in your marriage, at your job, you would fail. Right. I don't care how much drive you would have. It's then changing it to, man, why am I prioritizing, scheduling things, doing it with purpose, intentionality on every aspect of my life, but the health? Well, so it took me to be like, oh, my God, let me stop and see it and then realize what was my fears.

[00:11:34] To your point, my fear was I can't get that paper turned in. I'm not going to be able to do that extra workout. I'm not going to be able to take my business to the next level. And then it becomes like, no, that's not true. In fact, you're probably going to be more efficient in that you're not wasting 10 hours because you're so tired to accomplish one task. You're going to be well rested and can knock it out in an hour, for example. Right. Or you're going to start saying then, man, if I why am I doing all this?

[00:12:02] If when I get old, you know, time and time we see people with money, they can't even use it because they can't walk. They have medical problems. Right. They can't experience it. So then it's that purpose that you have to change. And to me, I like using car analogies. A lot of our clients are high end, are driven. They want to optimize. So I tell them like Lamborghini, right? Like you have a Lamborghini and you view yourself that right now you're viewing yourself as the Lamborghini of all, but internally not looking in.

[00:12:30] So who cares if you have a Lamborghini, if you don't have gasoline in your tank, if you don't have the right oil, right? Don't even talk about the right tires, right? Radio, whatever you want to do. It might look pretty, but it's only going to matter time before it breaks down. And I think it resonates with people. They're like, man, yeah, you're right. I spoke with somebody on Monday that that show's not out yet.

[00:12:50] Kate Clark, who was a mother of two and had gotten up to 220 pounds when she was 30 and going through depression, all that stuff. And the doctor told her she needed to go on medication to deal with the high blood pressure to help her out. And a complete mindset shift where she was like, screw that. I don't want it. And she just competed in our first bodybuilding show six years later, a couple months ago.

[00:13:18] And it wasn't like that wasn't the goal. You know, it obviously was initially I need to get better for my girls. I need to get better for this. And it was a slow progression, but she never needed to take the medicine. She never needed to do that because she was able to focus so much. And obviously every circumstance is different. Some people that might be a necessity to get started.

[00:13:43] But one thing, and I was mad at myself for not thinking of this and saying it in the moment, but you had just mentioned longevity, that sort of thing. Like she went from 30, you know, obese, not taking care of herself, not exercising, none of that stuff. And I'm just going by statistics.

[00:14:01] I, you know, I read online and looked at studies where, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, the average life expectancy for somebody that's out of shape, doesn't exercise, smokes, drinks, that sort of thing is high 60s, somewhere in there. Right. From what I could tell, but somebody who's fit, who's active, who's at a healthy weight, who eats well, doesn't smoke, drinks only in moderation is high 80s.

[00:14:26] So she went from maybe 35, 40 years left to now 55 to 60 years left. But those extra years and all those years are now so much better and of higher quality that not only can she live longer, but she lives better and enjoys herself more. Um, so I think getting that mindset, like you said, to really focus on your health, your body, your mind, your recovery, um, and be more efficient.

[00:14:55] Like you said, it just makes everything smoother and easier and more enjoyable. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, when we talk about mindsets, it, it also, then I think you have to put it in compartments. Right. And so, and, and, and the reason I say that, cause even with medications, right. I oftentimes see people right now, um, medications are tools. Right. And, and, and, you know, with the, the admin of social media, right.

[00:15:19] Or the internet, uh, it, it's kind of at first it makes me cringe when it's like, you don't need medication. Well, you don't know that. Right. Because we're at different stages of life. And if you look at them at tools, that's where the mindset is. Right. So for example, with her, so, uh, um, you know, bodybuilding show, right. That's a lot. Or I've heard people like, you want to run an Ironman, but you have to look at, there's different people. There's a person sitting on their couch where like an Ironman is not even like a possibility. Right.

[00:15:48] So like, if, if, if the mindset is to get them to do that, you've lost them. Right. One, because they're probably afraid. They're embarrassed. Right. They've tried it and failed. So I tell people like the mindset is just you, what's your next step to get you forward and keep moving? Because like her now, she, she probably went to like, I just want to get better to like, I want to do this. Yeah. She wasn't looking to go to the show. So sometimes a lot of people, it's just getting them too far. It's like, no, let's just start here.

[00:16:17] Let's start with this next step and let's use the tools. Don't, who cares what people say? These are tools for you. And if you need them now, great. But don't look at them as cheating. Don't look at them as like crutches because we don't do that in finances. Right. I don't look at all my financial team. I haven't, I got people that do my investments, people that do my retirement and people that are like, how does it, what's my exit strategy for work? Right. I don't look at that as cheating. And as personal training, I don't look at that as training.

[00:16:45] I look at it as like, you're helping me. Right. Yeah. Same with medications. At times you need them. There's a misconception of like, you're cheating or doing things. And I don't buy that. Cause I'm like, we're all at different stages and we have to be realistic. Like if your job is, I'll say some of the jobs we do a lot of salespeople, they're always on the road. They're never cooking. Right. Like for them to sit in front of us and we tell them, you got a meal prep, you got to do that. That's just not the reality. That's not enough. Yeah.

[00:17:14] So then it's like, do this small thing, work out here, do this. And then they start getting these habits where like, I can't do it. It could get to the point where the salesperson is like, I'll meal prep, but like, you can't take them from A to Z right away. No. We stress with people that the importance of that, it's like changing that habit. Um, and you know, the whole insanity conversation that we talked about doing the same thing and getting expecting different results is insanity.

[00:17:42] So is knowing what you should do and not doing it. Right. We never flipped the script on that. Cause a lot of us know what we should be doing. We're not doing it. It's just armed it up with people to help us do it. Yeah. No, I like that. I wasn't trying to say that, you know, the medications were bad and that wasn't the way she should go. Like obviously a hundred percent of their time for that is needed. And it's, it's definitely a case by case basis. Um, so can you give me a rundown of what you guys do at carbon world health?

[00:18:10] I know you, you spoke briefly about it, but can you give us more of an in-depth look into what you guys do there? Yeah. Yeah. So for us, um, it's, it's basically, we look at, we tell people that we want to preventative health, right? We want to optimize things. So we look at, um, depending on where you're coming from, whether that's a beauty, whether that's hormones, whether that's recovery, fitness, we say, okay, where are you? Why are you at this moment?

[00:18:39] And then where would you want to be six months from now? But what oftentimes is missed is like, what are those metrics that you can measure outside of just weight to then change things? Right. So for example, we do, if you come in with us, we do, um, we use all the data that we can in technology for its purpose. Right. So if you haven't got your blood work done, then you don't know if you need hormones or you don't. Right. Or you don't know if you have an illness or you don't. Right.

[00:19:06] And it's not just your basic labs that you get at, at your regular annual physical. Right. And then we go in depth where we teach you. Okay. And we use gas tanks a lot. Right. Cause I think everyone could see it. You can right now, Derek, if you're driven, you could be successful with the orange light on, right. In the gas tank, because if, if you have no, if, if you can't afford things right back in the day, orange light, man, mom, we have 25 miles to go. Let's go. But now you see yourself as a Lamborghini. You never want to get to that. Right.

[00:19:36] Cause you're kind of almost ruining the vehicle. So you want to fill that tank. Same with like the scale. Right. We talk to people for like, what you really mean when you want to lose weight is you want to look good naked. Right. It's not, you want to be skinny fat. It's not that you want to, unless you got to weigh in as an athlete, like for, you know, we give the UFC. Like, um, athletes and boxers crap. Cause they'll say, you're going to do it. I'm like, yeah, because I don't have to weigh in. I didn't choose that line. You did. So you have to write or competitions, things like that.

[00:20:03] But we show them like, Hey, you know, muscles heavier than fat. Right. So your weight might not change, but you're looking better. You're being healthier. And as we get older, it's harder to maintain muscle. So like, how do we do that? Right. How do we do diet based on your plan on your goals? And then how do you recover? Right. Recovery is one of those things that I, if you ask any athlete, that's a game changer for the last 10, 15 years. And if, if Derek, I'm sure you play sports as a print back in the day, our recovery was like, just throw ice and suck it up. Right.

[00:20:33] Get an injection and move forward. Now we have cryotherapy, red light therapy, pulse wave. We have all this technology. And then on our fitness side, what we do is we guide you. We tell people if pro athletes need trainers and that's their career, the average person needs to train. You can't just go into the gym and think like, you know how to do it. There's some that could, but there's very few. So then you're spending all this money on fitness, but have no direction. So you don't change anything.

[00:21:01] So we try to bring it all under one and say, this is the very least you need to do. This is the better version. And this is the best version of yourself. Where do you want to be? Where are you in your life right now? And let's come up with a game plan to get you there. That's awesome. It sounds super personalized and exactly what people need, as opposed to just downloading some workout online and thinking that's going to fit everybody. Cause it's certainly that's, that's not the case at all.

[00:21:32] So I, I like that, that, that seems like something that is not usually available to the general public. Like you said, athletes, professionals that, that need that get it. And the rest of us, you know, we try to, we try to go through our Saturday morning basketball and not get hurt and get the most out of it that we can. So that would be great. So if someone were to come into your office,

[00:22:00] you have that initial meeting, you sit down, you have the conversation first before you decide to do anything. I would have, I'm guessing. Yeah. So, so we, let's say you were coming to the concert, right? One is trying to get to know you, what brought you in, right? What have you tried? Where are you at? And then it's the data collection stuff, right? Because I can't give you a pathway. I don't know things. Long are the days where, you know, me and you are the same person, right?

[00:22:27] Long are the days where I can look at you and is your cholesterol good or bad? Or is there testing that I can do whether you're hormones or not, right? And I think that's the thing where as doctors, we miss in healthcare because the average, like if you saw me at the hospital, I unfortunately would order and treat you differently than if you saw Dr. Rodriguez or Carbon World Health. That's just the reality of healthcare, unfortunately, because insurance pressures, system pressures, time pressures. So you have to realize that, right?

[00:22:56] And you have to be proactive by your health and then seek out people that are viewing that. Because some doctors might say, well, that's inappropriate. It's not. If I'm making you healthier and you're choosing to be better, what's the problem with that? Insurance won't pay for that. That's different. But it's not that, right? So I would get all your data. I would show you. And then I would tell you, okay, six months from now, where do you want to be? Right? And I would show you, these are the things that are broken and we have to fix things that are broken.

[00:23:24] Or if everything's normal, how do I optimize it to the next level? And that same mentality, you already know because you're applying that in some aspects of your life. You're just not on all aspects of your life. And if you are, kudos, great. But the average person isn't. They're doing that for one particular part of their life, but not health usually. Yeah, usually health is the last thing that people look at. Until you get a little older and you're like, uh-oh. I got to take care of this.

[00:23:54] And unfortunately, that's usually the way it is. Did you do this for yourself? Were you going in and you're like, all right, this is where I want to be and set up a plan for you? Yeah. And for me, that was the thing, right? Being such a driven person, I was like, man, I'm succeeding. My bank account, my resume, right? Like my titles, what I was doing in career-wise. I was doing it young. But internally, I wasn't satisfied per se at times.

[00:24:24] Or I was struggling and I didn't want to show that I was burning out. I didn't want to show weakness. So then it's like, well, what is that, right? So one, my mentality is like, no, I got to look. I have access and I'm lucky to have access to mentors, facilities, places. And so then I ran myself through all the different exams that I run our client. And I saw that there was deficits that I didn't even know about. And then there was ways to optimize it.

[00:24:49] And it was me choosing to do the optimization part that now, you know, me being so busy, it's fine. Like I do, I've accomplished 10 times more in less time because of the way I feel. So, and joking around, like I'm always saying, I look younger as I get older and I feel younger as I get older, which is, you know, win-win. Because when I retire, I want to be able to do things. Exactly. Yeah. And I unfortunately started losing my hair at like 15 and started shaving at like 20, 21.

[00:25:18] So I've looked like this for 20 something years. So I looked old when I was young. So now I just look old and I'm old. So it's good about that. When people come, actually, before we get off the baldness, is there anything that you people come in, they're like, help me out here. And you're like, all right, here you go. Yeah. So they have, so, you know, weight loss is a big one, right?

[00:25:43] And when we say weight loss, it's really gain keeping muscle or gaining muscle while you lose weight, right? That's how you hear people talk about skeletal muscle, not necessarily weight loss. Now there's hormones imbalances, meaning like, hey, I don't feel myself. And at some point it's going to happen to all of us. Men are so much easy. I always joke around like we're simple beings and I can fix men like this. Female are more complicated, but their changes come later because of the reproductive states. You don't really want to mess with them.

[00:26:12] So hormones is a big one that's there. And then it becomes like metabolism, sleep, recovery, right? I have an injury. How do I recover from this? I want to continue playing sports. How do I avoid getting hurt? Those would be kind of the three buckets that people come to us. And then we feed them all this extra stuff. Hair is a big one too. So like does hormones cause hair loss, right? I actually, I was like, you wouldn't, if I wouldn't have this hair, if you said, you invited me here about a year ago.

[00:26:39] So she went to Turkey and got hair plugs. And I'm proud, like right now, since then I've had tons of colleagues, friends that were nervous about it. I'm like, why? Go ahead. If it's fine. You see the Turkey stuff. And I'm like, should I? Yeah. I don't know. I've been born for 20 something years, 25 years now. So I don't know if I would even recognize myself. But that's awesome. When did you do that?

[00:27:06] And so I did it last, I think last May or something. When it was finally, like we were taking pictures and I'm like, damn. Cause in my mind, I still had hair and I was trying to do every witch hairstyle to do. And finally, like, why don't you do it? And even there, right. To me was, you know, in America, why don't I do it here? Well, here it's 20 to 30 grand. We don't do it as often because no one has 20, 20, 20 to 30 grand to pay every day. Right.

[00:27:35] In Turkey, they do it every day. Um, and it's $3,100 and you take a trip out of it. So I researched it, did it, went to the top dog stairs, became friends with them. Um, and it was a great experience. And, and, and again, that was an investment in myself, right? I look at health as like investing in you. Like what makes you happy? And I guarantee you being healthy is going to make you happy in so many ways. So why not invest in yourself? No, that's a, that's a great idea.

[00:28:02] If, if people, um, you were talking about, uh, you know, weight loss and injuries, how to, how to avoid those. What are some of the most common things you tell people when they come see you? And I know everybody's different and I'm not saying it applies to everybody, but are there some commonalities you see in people that come to see you? Yeah. So, so I think the, so one is it's a weight loss, for example, right? It, that can mean so many different things and people are coming from so many different

[00:28:32] spaces. And first is to, to kind of say, Hey, we're going to meet you where you're at. Right. And, and every, there's so many tools at your disposal. My job as the doctor or your concierge medicine dog is to figure out what are the tools, one that are going to work best for you. Who are the people, your team that's going to rally you to make this successful and then take into account your finance, right? How much are you willing to invest? Because unfortunately there is things that some can and some can't do, but then create

[00:29:02] that pathway and say in due time, you're going to see it too. Um, with that, I educate them about what are the myths out there about things? What are those reality of things? And, um, that it's an ongoing process, not just a turn, like, you know, turn key. Hey, the next day you're, you're going to get better. Um, with that, then that allows them to share and to be like, Hey, these are my struggles or this is where I've tried. And what you realize a lot of people before they come to me have tried a million different things.

[00:29:31] They spent hundreds, thousands of dollars trying to do it on their own because information is so easy, but they're, but they've never personalized it to themselves. And so then it's, how do we get from that stuff, um, and personalize it to them? And it's almost that there's too much information. So you don't know how to, we, you know, get through all the crap and not that it's all crap. It works for certain people, but like you said, how do you know what's right for you?

[00:30:01] So you need, you need a little help to get you going in that direction. Um, I was talking to at our gym we have now, they, uh, they put on a month long transformation challenge where you just weigh yourself at the start at the end and before and after pictures. And one of the people was upset because they're not upset, but you know, they, they were a little discouraged because they had just lost a pound in a week, which that's a pound a week is great.

[00:30:28] You know, you're down 50 pounds a year, but you could also see more definition. Even it was a week and a half. You could even see it in that time that they built a little more muscle. So it, you know, it's, you're gaining muscle as well as losing fat. So you have to, the, the number on the scale is not really something that should be the focus. You know, you feel better, you look better.

[00:30:54] Um, you can go to the beach and take your shirt off and feel comfortable, those sorts of things. And that, that's really, you know, you get away from the numbers, um, on the scale. Cause that's probably the least important one. Um, you know, you can look at strength gains at the gym and you can look at, um, I don't know how to read blood work like you do, but I'm sure there are certain indicators in there that make it like, all right, this is good. We want the numbers going this way. So yeah, that's definitely helpful.

[00:31:21] Have you worked with, um, so what we do, for example, all we use in body, um, and our in body scale. So body composition scales. So I tell any trainer, any person that's doing nutrition, like you can't look at weight without even evaluating a type of scale like that. Cause otherwise you're going through the number. So muscles heavier than fat. Right. And you're right because particularly females, right. If you're going to culturally stereotype, they have a harder time because of the way society

[00:31:49] has made about weight, weight, weight, weight, weight guys always laugh. Cause remember, you know, the, the biometrics where it's just just, well, most of us are, are, if we're kind of meatheads at times, our biceps are good and our chest is good. So I have guys like I'm 6% body fat. I'm like, there's no way you're 6% body fat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Looking at the scale, we use it in a sense of like, look, you, you, you, what you're really saying is you want to look good naked, right? That that's really what you really want to say, but you don't want to say.

[00:32:19] Yeah. So you're not going to care if your weight, wherever your weight is, if you look good, if you, in your eyes, if you look good and that looking good is different for everyone. If you look in the mirror and you look good, you're not going to care what that scale says. Because you are going to care how much muscle you have, how much fat you're losing. Right. And vice versa with blood work, you've probably seen them Derek in your gym where you could have someone that has done everything right and their body isn't changing. Well, because they don't have the hormones, they don't have the fuel. Right. Yeah.

[00:32:48] And worse yet, they get frustrated because the person next to them, they're like, how is it? How is it that they change so quickly? Usually it's, it's fixing that. Right. So that's where with medications, that's what I was talking about are hormones. Like I don't look at them as cheating because me and you are in a band and I'm horrible. I don't care what venues, what cultures, I'm going to be horrible. Yeah. If you fix me, now you bring all the bells and whistles, we're going to be phenomenal.

[00:33:13] So it's like getting that data, fixing those small things and looking at it as something positive rather than negative, you can do well. Right. And GOP ones is something that we don't have, we can talk about or not. I know there's controversy. I'm a big fan and it's, I look at it as tools again. Yeah. Hey, you can dive into that too. Do you want to give the listeners a little, a little background into what they are in case people aren't familiar with? Yeah, for sure. So, so GOP one, so it's the Zempic, right?

[00:33:42] The, the Wegli, which is the semiglutide. It's the Mongero or Zepan, the Trisepatide, right? So it's weight loss medications, right? So what's crazy enough, all this started from a lizard in Arizona that some scientists back in the day looked at and like, man, it only eats twice a year. And why is it ripped? And that's where it came from, right? And they started studying it. Then the medication was supposed to be a type two diabetic medication. And we noticed, oh my God, you lose a lot of weight, right?

[00:34:11] So that, that kind of started the controversy of, it got patented as a type two medication, but we're using it for other indications. Now, fast forward to everyone's using it. And there's the people that, that they're getting sick, or there's the people, the famous people that you see, they're getting so skinny that people are like, that's horrible, you shouldn't do it. Or then you have trainers that are saying like, that's cheating, right? That's kind of the controversy out there. In my mind, it's a tool.

[00:34:40] If you're really sick and can't get to moving around and mentally you're not there to make these changes, one injection to keep you healthy, I think it's worth it to me. Like, like, I don't see it as cheating, right? But then you have to apply it to the scale. So we've cut people off because we tell them this is one tool. But if you're coming to us just to lose the weight off of this and not going to adapt to working out, eating healthy, then go somewhere else, right? And unfortunately they're going to find it. So I think that's what people are bad about.

[00:35:09] But not the medication. The medication is great. We've never had a medication that way. It's just how we use it. So to me, just today, we had a client call and she's like, I want to bring my friend. How do I commence her? She goes somewhere else. She's on a high dose and she's puking and losing weight, but she's puking and feels miserable. I'm like, why? Let's do I have a dose. Let's lower dose. Let's do micro dosing and let's use it appropriately. And I always tell trainers, the trainers, obviously we have a gym, right?

[00:35:37] Like we're not, we don't want our gym not to come. We're like, no, use it appropriately. And if you're losing too much muscle as opposed to fat, then the stroke's not for you or you're using it inappropriately. And then for the people that are actually using it appropriately, that gives us the opportunity to say, okay, you're mine. I'm helping you with your mind. So you don't have those cravings. You eat less. It's that calorie deficit.

[00:36:03] But now I got to talk to you about why food matters and that food now is for fuel, not for entertainment. And that's what we tell pro athletes, right? They use it for fuel in and out, in and out, in and out versus overeating. So that's why I'm a big proponent. It's a, it's, it's, I think it's a phenomenal medication. It's just people are mad about the results of how people are using it. That's a different conversation.

[00:36:27] I will say the, the part that worries me is the reliance on that. And you said it perfectly. You teach people the nutrition piece, the food piece, that piece. If people just use that in a reliant on that, the second they stop, it's all coming back. Right. Um, and probably more problems on top of that. So yeah, I think anything you use as a tool used correctly with guidance and that's why they're coming to you is to understand how to do it. I think it's perfect.

[00:36:56] Um, do you ever tell people like, I don't think this is going to work for you, um, and send them on their way if they're not going to listen? I do. So, so I think that's why people appreciate us. So I do a couple of things. Let's say you came in and your levels, let's say hormonally, they're so bad that like, technically you're, you're really low where insurance can pay for it. And should we got to look at more things? I'm the first one to tell them, Hey, you're low insurance could cover it.

[00:37:26] Go to your doc. And if your doc disagrees, I'll tell you how to talk to your doc so that they agree. Right. But let's say you're just low and you want to optimize. Okay. I'll tell you they can't do it because insurance won't pay for it. So you have to come to me and I can help you with it. Right. But I will also tell you, if you're not ready, if you're not thinking about using these appropriately, then I won't. I'll say, Hey, this is, you know, but unfortunately with telemedicine, with all this, like they're going to find it.

[00:37:55] And my goal is like, you need to be educated as to why you're doing this stuff. You need to see the results and that you're doing it for the right way. Otherwise you're doing all this incorrectly. And that's what we pride ourselves. If you were going to get all our clients, we call them clients at carbon rather than patients. Yeah. That's what they appreciate. They're like, man, I can come to you. You don't tell me, Hey, that's a crazy. I tell you, let's talk about it. I heard from a pocket. I heard from Derek. He said, semi-glute. Now you get, you're going to grow a third eye. Well, let's talk about it.

[00:38:23] Like, I'm not going to say, no, I'm going to say, let's talk about it. Let's see. But at the same time, we're going to call them out and say, Hey, no, I'm taking you off this medication. They're like, but I'm paying you. So what? Cause it's not worth it to me. Right. I want, I want to make people change and be better than just make a buck. And that in for longevity purposes, that's what any business needs is you trust from the clients or the customers or the consumers knowing that you're doing what's best for

[00:38:53] them and not what's best for you. Um, and if you do what's best for them, then it all comes back and it helps you too in the long run. But it's, I think that's what, well, especially something like this, where people are trusting you literally with their lives and their body and their health and their wellbeing. That's, that's a huge responsibility that's placed on you guys and a huge level of trust in, in, in care that you provide back. So that's awesome that you guys have that relationship with your clients.

[00:39:23] Yeah. Especially when you talk about hormones or peptides, there's so much misinformation out there, right? That, that people are doing it for different reasons. Um, and we get pretty specific and usually I'm like, I'm asking you with a why. And if your why is cause I just want to look the same way or cause my buddy told me that's not the why. Like we gotta get to, to your truly why. Yeah. Um, how do you handle people who have a little bit of trouble with delayed gratification and

[00:39:52] they want it now? Is that through the education experience where you, you know, enough education and people understand? It is. So, so I think you have to, so we do this in the emergency, right? We, we, we know that people want it quick and we're the quickest in town, right? Um, if you want to get a CT scan, good luck. It's six months and you need preauthorization. So now people come in the emergency and they do it quickly. Right. So I know that.

[00:40:17] So, so the skill sets that we use there, we then translate where it's, um, really the reasons why they want to get to that point. And then putting it into perspective that you didn't get to this position overnight either. So kind of coming back of having them own their lack of projection for, for like the last six months, six years, it's going to take that same amount of time, if not more to get you out of that rut, to change you into it. But again, you're doing it for the longterm.

[00:40:44] And I like to use a lot of financial for that. It's like, yeah, we all want to win the lottery, but that's not the, the advice that our financial advisors are going to give us. So when you start reasoning with people about other aspects of life where they agree, then they'll start saying, yeah, you know what? You're right. It's just my misinterpretation. Right. And social media makes it so because you'll just hear, you don't hear how long they did.

[00:41:12] You just hear like here, they went here and look how great they looked, but you don't talk about their challenges, their, you know, their downfalls, how long it took. And so education is a big thing in my opinion for that. Uh, that's, I, I think that's the best way to do it. You know, when people have an understanding of something, it makes it a heck of a lot easier than just, Oh, you know, Dr. Rodriguez told me it's going to take six months and I got to wait just cause he said so that that never really lasts. Yeah. You know?

[00:41:40] So, um, that's awesome. I, I do want to ask you a question and if, if I don't want to get you in hot water or something you don't want to answer. So just tell me now and we'll cut it. And like, it never happened. But you, you mentioned, um, you have to treat people differently in the ER than you do at Carbon World Health. And is that really pushed by the insurance companies or just the way the healthcare system is set up in the United States?

[00:42:10] Yeah. So it's a little bit of, uh, it's a multifold answer, right? And yeah, you know, I will give myself an hour, but I don't care cause I'm passionate about it because I see it downstream. It's right. Um, I want it to be an emergency medicine because I want to be able to treat anyone race, nationality, immigrant, not immigrant money, cannot money, right? We're one of the few specialties that no matter what we're going to take care of you and we're going to figure out the costs afterwards. Right.

[00:42:39] But if you look at the cost, we are not the ones that are, um, that are driving up the cost of healthcare. You know, people want to say that. No, no, it's not. We're a safety net for everyone else. It's how we view health, what choices we make and how we do it. And so unfortunately it is, we're insurance, you know, insurance lobbyists, they're, they're making a big push where you have to do these preauthorizations. Um, I'm not going to optimize you. It's only when you're broken. Am I going to do it?

[00:43:10] They're altruistic is like, well, there's risk and benefits. There's risk and benefits to everything. We can walk outside and get hit by a car. Like I'm, that doesn't mean I'm not going to walk outside. Right. So unfortunately it is. Um, and there is this dichotomy of health that healthcare providers, you know, if they were honest about it, we'll say it exists. We don't like talking about it. We don't like advertising it. Yeah. But I do, um, because it's, there's people out there that are getting different care,

[00:43:38] access to things, can pay to different things, but why can't everyone else do it? Right. And unfortunately the way the system set up is if you can't afford it, then you can't, but at least you can start getting some of the education. You can start then going back to your docs and requesting some of that. That's probably where I get the most hot water. Cause my colleagues are like, why'd you tell Derek to tell me that? Now I have to do it. I'm like, well, cause you should. Yeah, you should. Um, but, but there is, I mean, if you look at executive programs, you look at, um, you

[00:44:07] know, carbon world health, you look at places like us, like we are treating you guys differently, but we're doing it for the right purpose and to, and to make you succeed and live a long, uh, fruitful life. All right. Well, I appreciate your honesty with that answer. I didn't want to get you in any trouble, but it's fine. Yeah. You know, but it sounds like that's something that makes carbon world health different than other experiences people are going to have with their health is cause you're able to take

[00:44:37] the time, sit with them, go through all the options and what you opinion wise think is best. Not what, you know, there might be some other influences that have to dictate anything you're telling people or any advice that you're giving. Correct. Correct. And they got to be comfortable. Right. I show them that I'm going to make them better without making them more. So that semi-glute example, for example, I would never want to put you on a treatment and then I have to treat the side effects of it. That makes no sense. Right.

[00:45:07] Yeah. If I'm putting on something, I'm making you better, not creating another problem than I have to sit. Right. Um, and with the education, what I get in the emergency department, Derek, you have medical problems? No, I don't doc. You're on medications. Oh yeah. Like three lists. There's a defect there. Like something happened. Found, not found. Cause you obviously have medical problems. Yeah. We didn't teach you. So if you don't get it and you're not taught, like, why are you going to change? Right.

[00:45:35] Like it's just, I'm throwing a medication. Yes. If you're on a medication, you better know why you're on it, what the end goal is. And can I get off of it? Right. That's a different discussion. Then I'm just going to give it to you, which is what, you know, everyone's fearful or hates us about doctors. But here's another hot water. I push it back on you guys, right? I'd be like, Hey Derek, it's also your responsibility to know your health. It's also your responsibility to make those choices.

[00:46:03] I could lead you to water, but I'm not going to make you drink it. So I'm pretty honest with people and they love that. I either hate it, then don't come see me. But if you love it, we're going to have these discussions and we're going to get you better because I care for you. Well, I think those, those awkward, difficult conversations are what actually get people better. You know, it's, it's discomfort. It's stuff like that. Even lifting weights or whatever you do, you got to put yourself out of your comfort zone in order to grow and improve.

[00:46:31] So the same thing with conversations about difficult topics. So that's a, it's refreshing that that's the, the approach that you guys are taking there. So thanks. Well, I, I want to thank you for taking the time. I don't want to take up too much of your evening. I know you, you, you have your long work days. Um, how can people get in touch with you? Yeah. So, so one, I thank you for the opportunity. I always love sharing the message that's there, right? Hopefully it sparks fire on people, but they can go to our website.

[00:46:59] So www.carbon, C-A-R-B-O-N, worldhealth.com. And they can follow us on Instagrams, um, you know, Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn as Dr. Nester Rodriguez. Um, you can get in touch with us. And like Derek, I told you for having me here, you know, if you're, if, if your listeners want to get with us, mention the podcast, I'll waive my consultation fee and we'll evaluate and learn and see if, if it's something that works. So, um, so definitely reach out.

[00:47:29] Um, if you want to learn, see, it doesn't mean you're going to, we're going to add you or put you on stuff. Right. But if you have questions, want to learn more, definitely reach out. We're all about education, like I mentioned. So, um, yeah, reach out. There's a, a connect, you know, on our website that you can submit all your information. Again, mention the, the podcast, um, and then go from there. That's awesome. Thank you. That's, that's, uh, that's incredibly generous. Thank you, Dr. Rodriguez. Um, and this can be done virtually too. People don't have to be in Wisconsin for this.

[00:47:58] Yeah, that's important. So yeah, so we, everything can be virtual. Uh, in fact, most of, uh, we have a large client here, but a lot of our, uh, you know, athletes, professionals, they're, they're everywhere. And they just heard of us through podcasts or me speaking at national conferences and they just trust us. So we get nowadays, you could do everything, including scales. We could send you an in-body scale at home to measure that stuff, um, and get discounts off of that. And so, um, we could set that up. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. All right.

[00:48:28] Well, guys definitely take advantage of this. This is a, this is quite an offer. So make sure you guys go over to carbon world health.com or, or find these guys on LinkedIn or, or Instagram, Facebook. I think you said as well. Yep. So pretty much everything out there. Um, and what, I can say one more thing. Yeah, of course you can say plenty more. Because we do virtual, obviously you as a personal trainer, um, what, what, what like personal trainers, other dots, what they shouldn't fear is I'm all about working with the team,

[00:49:26] right? We have, um, we've had fitness competitors on here, runners. We we've had professional athletes and, um, Olympic hopefuls and Mr. Olympia hopefuls and all those are these people that would benefit from pretty. It sounds like anybody would who anyone. Yeah. So awesome. All right. Well, we will definitely get the word out there. All this information will be in the show notes. Um, so feel free to check those out, go over to YouTube.

[00:49:52] You can watch the video there or the podcast there subscribe. We're, we're actually trying to push the YouTube a little more. We've been neglecting that a little bit. Um, but if you're listening on Spotify, all the information will be in the show notes there, Apple podcasts, wherever you happen to find it. Thank you all everybody for listening. I know time is the most valuable thing that you can give to somebody. So we appreciate you taking the time with us and hope you have an awesome rest of your day or night, whenever it is that you're listening to this.

[00:50:21] Thank you again, Dr. Rodriguez. I appreciate it. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.