Latest / Everyday Ancestral with James Barry / ''I Lost 100 Pounds Eating Real Food and Walking Every Day'' — Brandon Miller Proves Modern Ancestral Living Works

Transcript

''I Lost 100 Pounds Eating Real Food and Walking Every Day'' — Brandon Miller Proves Modern Ancestral Living Works · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

0:00
Welcome back to every day in Cestral.
0:03
You may have heard me talk about in the past how it took me until I was in my early 20s
0:08
to even know that food affected my health.
0:11
Well our next guest learned in his late teens that something had to change around how he
0:18
was eating and living and now he's 23 and has truly found some really fantastic answers.
0:25
When I met our next guest, Brandon Miller, it was about two years ago and I was guessing
0:29
on his podcast and I got to tell you, he was extreme in his viewpoint of the diet that
0:37
everyone should be on.
0:39
So I was very excited to interview him and discover that actually those extremities are
0:45
of days past and he's really come around to what I think is a more ancestral way of
0:52
living.
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So very excited for you to learn more about Brandon Miller.
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He's a nutrition coach and personal trainer from Jupiter, Florida.
1:00
He lost over a hundred pounds in 2020 and now he helps educate others on how to lose
1:05
weight, build muscle and improve body composition as well as just their overall health.
1:10
This is everyday ancestral and I'm your host James Berry.
1:14
Please enjoy our next guest, Brandon Miller.
1:18
When we first connected, you were like hardcore carnivore.
1:22
Why were you eating carnivore at that time?
1:24
Because I know you had health issues leading up to that.
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Can you talk about that?
1:28
Yeah.
1:29
So my main reason I even got into extreme dieting was my first attempt to lose weight in 2020,
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which was my only attempt to lose weight.
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I lost a little over a hundred pounds, close to 110 pounds back in 2020.
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It was very powerful.
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It definitely got me right into the world of health and fitness wanting to help other people
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lose weight, feel better about themselves and get healthy.
1:50
The way I lost weight was so wrong, originally.
1:53
I did a lot of things the wrong way.
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It was a runner and didn't lift weights, something I regret to this day, but thankfully I
2:00
got into it.
2:01
I didn't need enough protein, something I also regret.
2:04
Are you also doing a lot of starvation stuff?
2:07
Yeah, totally.
2:08
It was such a wrong way to go about losing weight and it was a very good learning lesson
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for me to never put any client through what I did.
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It was very extreme, very difficult.
2:19
How old were you at this point?
2:20
I was probably 18 or 19.
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So you go on Google, you look it up and you just do a little bit of what they say and
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I saw the pounds coming off and I didn't stop and a hundred pounds later.
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People ask me always at the end of my weight loss journey, you look amazing, how do you
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feel?
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I felt better when I was fat.
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I feel like crap because I did a starvation diet.
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I ate once a day crappy foods, low quality nutrition and then I burned off so much more
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than I was eating and I lost a way too fast.
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Just show importance to people and looking back at this now that I've literally gone to
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school for it and my biggest passion is nutrition and I'm now coach, I'm now a business owner.
3:01
It's just the main thing is take your time.
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Take your time with weight loss, lose it slowly, do it the right way.
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It's better to lose it in two or three years instead of brushing it like I did in eight
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months and your chance of keeping it off is that much higher.
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So I would definitely go back and change some things.
3:18
And to be fair, maybe kids these days are getting into diet a lot easier like sooner than
3:23
I'm aware of, but I just feel like most people don't even realize how food is affecting them
3:30
or how starvation things are affecting them until their 20s or even 30s.
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So the fact that you were learning of what was working or not working in your body in your
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late teens is huge.
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Absolutely.
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It's so important to connect with yourself and with the food you're eating and understand
3:47
how things make you feel.
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I was one of the biggest reasons why I jumped into an extreme diet like carnivore.
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Originally, I was doing keto.
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I've tried all different kinds of diets in my life.
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Thank God I've never done a vegan diet and I'm sure we could talk about that because
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vegans have amazing intention, but I'm so happy that I prioritize meat and animal foods
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with every diet that I've ever tried.
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Even when I'm doing today, I still do that.
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I got into carnivore because of my IBS, which was something I read about online.
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Didn't know if it was reversible.
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I said, I'll give it a shot.
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I had lost all the weight at this point.
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IBS is irritable bowel syndrome, but what kind of symptoms are shown up for you?
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Just frequency to go to the bathroom and not clean when I went to the bathroom.
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And it was very consistent.
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It was something that always agitated me when I would go out to a family,
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friends on dates, stuff like that.
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Like it's just it's not a fun thing to have or to deal with.
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And I didn't think it was reversible and heard about Michaela Peterson,
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Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, way back in the day when this style of diet really started to
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become the most popular.
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And I tried it and it worked.
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Now, I had some long term issues on keto carnivore that I want to go into that not a lot of
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people share.
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And so reason I'm not doing it today.
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I do believe that a low carb keto diet or carnivore diet is not ideal for people that
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exercise for two hours plus a day.
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I feel that I ran into some series electrolyte issues and I had severe heart palpitations.
5:17
Very similar to what happened to Paul Saldeno and the reason why he stopped the diet.
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And it's pretty crazy because a lot of people told me, oh, you just need more fat or,
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you know, you just need more quality food or more, more butter.
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I was eating so much fat, I was gaining so much weight from this diet.
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By the way, you can gain a lot of weight from a keto carnivore diet.
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I'd probably gain like 20 pounds and I didn't I didn't feel good at the end of it.
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I think it was due to the excess weight gain.
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I think it was due to me just trying to eat enough fat to fix a problem that needed to be fixed
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with, you know, carbohydrates back in my diet.
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So yeah, it worked on including different carbohydrates tried one at a time.
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And I'm somebody who can really be strict with things.
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I have no problem with it, which is not easy to find with my age.
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But I have no problem being super strict and adding one food in back at a time.
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And I found out that, you know, it wasn't essentially a lot of vegetables.
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It was just a few vegetables that were irritating my gut and causing the IBS.
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And I actually eat a lot of vegetables that I feel great.
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And I have no problems there.
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Which vegetables did you find were irritating you?
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Believe it or not, brown rice was irritating me.
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I'm not sure why not white rice.
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I'm fine with white rice.
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There were some other specific random ones in my life that I know where it was going on.
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And there were only a handful that were causing the problem.
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I think large amounts of spinach were causing a huge issue for me and my gut.
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And because when you get into fitness in the fitness realm,
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like it's very popular for people to eat like big spinach salads.
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Like because everyone is just so ultra focused on calories.
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And a lot of people thank micronutrients and spinach salad.
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Yes, true.
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But we don't absorb all those micronutrients.
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We flush a lot of them out.
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And yeah, that was definitely irritating me.
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And just like lots of cruciferous vegetables in large amounts.
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Now, I do cruciferous vegetables today.
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I'll do some cups spinach today.
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But I don't have a large amount of it.
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And I think that's very important because so many people, especially younger people,
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are misled in the health fitness base that you need to be eating loads of vegetables
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because they're low in calories.
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And the nutrition for vegetables is fine.
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It's not as good as animal foods, but it's meant to compliment your diet.
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It's meant to be a balance.
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And I think people need to understand that better.
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What are you eating in large amounts these days?
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And is it mostly just meat?
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I essentially just eat all whole foods.
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Oh, nuts and seeds.
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Nothing seeds were a big problem with my IBS.
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That was something that I need to bring up for sure.
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And I haven't done large amounts of nuts and seeds.
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And since I lost the weight to like over five years ago.
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But it is essentially mostly meat fish eggs and fruit.
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And then some vegetables on the side and then some dairy.
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So meat fish eggs, fruits, vegetables, dairy.
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That's essentially what I'm eating.
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And I actually do raw dairy.
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I found that pasteurized dairy does make me bloat a little bit more.
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Personally, I think it's great for people to experiment with all this.
8:09
Yeah, to find what works for their body.
8:10
Now, how long did you do carnivore diet?
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Probably over a year, strict.
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This was not just like a single month for, you know, this wasn't like,
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oh, I tried it and then I had issues and I, but you, you were in.
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You were fully two feet in.
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And I remember when we talked, because I hear you now using language,
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like it was an extreme diet.
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I think even your thinking around it might have been,
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would you say was extreme?
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Because you almost didn't want to hear anything other than like,
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no, this is the only thing.
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Oh, my God.
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As soon as I started eating plant foods and I started putting them in my diet slowly,
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I got an insane amount of eight on follows on social media.
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I do want to stress that it is a very culty world.
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It's a very culty diet.
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People treat diets like religion and politics and very firm in their beliefs.
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And I was definitely deep in that realm.
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It's just what I got exposed to on social media when you start scrolling and looking at things
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in social media, more of that thing pops up more.
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And yeah, I got really deep into it.
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And I became part of that culty religious belief that carnivore diet is the perfect diet.
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And that's it.
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And anybody who has any opposing views,
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it doesn't matter because this is what worked for me.
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And this is what worked for X, Y and Z people I know.
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I think it's important that we should look at some research
9:27
and we should look at some anecdotes.
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I think a balance of that is really important.
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Throughout my time adding plant foods to my diet,
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I've got a lot of love from people that go on my DMs and say,
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I was so afraid to eat a strawberry because people in the carnivore community would shame me.
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For eating a strawberry, it's really became like the new vegan over the years.
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And I think a lot of the people in the carnivore community have amazing intention
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and they really want to improve their health and other people's health.
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But it is very culty.
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So it is something you just have to be careful.
10:01
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10:06
Let's drop that to 20%.
10:08
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10:12
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10:20
Why do you think so many of us lob on to diets and get so culty about it?
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When you fix a autoimmune or a major health issue in your life,
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you want to tell everyone about it because it makes you feel so good.
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I think really the majority of whole food to diets all would work.
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Essentially, if you're getting all the bioavailable vitamins and minerals
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through eating meat, fish eggs, fruits, vegetables, dairy,
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it's going to work for a lot of people.
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And some people are going to have to be more strict with that based on their symptoms.
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But when a style works for someone, they get very attached to that style.
10:57
And like I said, it's your entire environment.
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When you follow people in that community,
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when you scroll on Instagram, scroll on TikTok, it's all you see.
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You don't see the other side.
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And the other side is immediately dismissed by that community.
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I've had a lot of talks with people that have had carnivore
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and have had a lot of issues from it.
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I've had a lot of talks with people that are vegan,
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have a lot of issues from it.
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Both diets can work.
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We can argue long term if they're super healthy long term.
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But essentially when something works for someone,
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they can become very passionate in it.
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And a lot of people have that right intention to spread the message to other people.
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But like I said, it becomes very culty and very religious beliefs are very powerful in today's world.
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You definitely sound like you're looking at life with softer eyes.
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Would you say that?
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A million percent.
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I actually think that diet is a good part,
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but it's not everything when it comes to health.
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It's also the same belief in these communities that if you change your diet,
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like, yeah, your health can improve.
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It can be amazing.
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But if you're on a carnivore diet and you sit inside all day and you have a desk job
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and you're not getting proper light and UV signals
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and you're exposed to a lot of environmental toxins,
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like all this stuff matters to.
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It's not just as simple as fixing a diet.
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Sure, you can get some results,
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but I think health is a balance of a lot of different things.
12:17
Well, you said when you filled out the application to be on this podcast,
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you wrote something and I would love you to share a deeper about what it means to you.
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But you said health is more of a state of the body and mind
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and less about certain foods or exercises.
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True. I think certain foods are deemed as superfoods
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and they will do heal all these things.
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But like I said, it is an absolute balance and it's how you feel.
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It's how you truly feel.
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You can convince yourself you feel good on any diet,
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but until you get all the other stuff in your life fixed,
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that's how someone is truly healthy.
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I don't define healthy as a subset of a perfect blood marker somebody falls into.
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It's how they feel, how they act, what they believe.
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All these things can make you healthier on healthier and it's sort of this
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state of being and less of a certain exact protocol to do.
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And I've definitely changed my belief on that over the years.
13:16
Well, you mentioned you got when you did get off the bandwagon of carnivore
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that you got a lot of intense energy around that.
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How did you manage that? I mean, you're a young guy.
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You probably grown up with a phone and being on this digital media and
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looking for approval in a sense or kind of you are becoming your own influencer in that space.
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So it's like when suddenly you're the, and I'm doing air quotes but like the bad guy,
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how did you cope with that as a young person who's probably used to
13:50
looking for approval, but now is not being approved?
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Yeah, I didn't take it personally. You can't take someone's comment or DM on social media,
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super personally, especially if you don't know those people, I got a lot of good validation
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and approval from my family and friends who I actually care about their opinions.
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And you know, in the real world, this crazy as it is, you can't take stuff personally.
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If you're going to be a creator, you're going to change your mind, you're going to follow
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something, promote something, and you change your mind, you get slack for that.
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You have to be cold, you have to be, you can't let it affect you.
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You know, that's exactly what people want that comment this stuff.
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You know, you don't think there are people that are animal based that switched to carnivore
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and they get slack from animal. It's the same thing that both happen. Vegan, same thing.
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You get off of vegan diet or you promote some sort of supplement and you say,
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hey, this supplement has heavy metals or it has something in it and I switch to a different
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supplement. Boom, people are like, oh, you're a snake oil salesman, they'll say all these things.
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So you're going to get slack no matter what you do in social media if you change your mind on
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something, but I think those are the best creators. I think the best creators are willing to admit
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that they've changed their mind, they made a mistake, they've done research and they've figured
15:01
out what worked to them. And if people don't like that, then it is what it is. I'll get a
15:06
whole different following of different people. Yeah, it's interesting because it almost sounds
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like you found courage within your transparency of the change. I absolutely did. I became more
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confident over the years and like I said, you just can't take a lot of it seriously and you can't
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take things to heart, no pun intended. But yeah, you can't take things to heart even though I
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still ate organs and stuff like that. I find that so fascinating though. Some of the people I know,
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you know, in my age bracket, like they look at social media sometimes like they're so worried about
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being a hack or being misinterpreted or imposter syndrome, you know what I mean, even though
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they're experts in their field, there's a certain level of like overwhelm when they think about
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putting their stuff out there on social media and it getting so scrutinized. But if I'm hearing
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you correctly, it doesn't sound like that phase is you at all that it's more about hey, I just
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want to be authentic and you're not as concerned about the scrutiny. No, because I have the right
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environment in my life outside of my phone. So that's extremely important. If you live on your phone
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as a creator, you have to have family friends that are away from the phone where you can put the
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device down and hang out with people and have genuine conversation with people that actually
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know you and care about your life. And I think that's so valuable and honestly a big part of
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health in today's world that a lot of people are they don't have or they have less of because
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people are very glued to their devices and what people say online. Big difference that separates
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decent creators from really good creators is they just don't take slack. They just keep posting no
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matter what though. They know that they'll find the right group of people. Eventually you will.
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And if you keep that mindset locked in, you'll be okay. It takes a long time and it takes patience.
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So what kind of lifestyle are you leading now? Like what is a day in the life of Brandon look like
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I know you're a trainer now. So I trained remotely. Yeah, I don't train in person. It's pretty
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it's amazing. So I moved to Florida a few years ago. One and a half years ago now. So definitely
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after we had our chat together on our last podcast, the reason I moved to Florida is to be around
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healthy people to get good sunlight to spend a lot of time in the beach. And that's exactly what I do.
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So I'll wake up and get my feet in the muck go for a long walk ground. My phone is is any other
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room my Wi-Fi is off. And this is my time for sure each morning user around 637-ish I'll get up
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and I'll go on the beach. And that morning walk is essential to me no matter what happens in
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life. I always have that time. I do eat before. I think it's important to eat protein when you
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first wake up. I don't want to skip that. So I do usually have a few eggs banana. Something that
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will fuel me. And then I come back. I'll make another big meal. Usually I have smoked salmon,
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some more fruit, some vegetables. And then I will hit the gym, strength train. And while I'm doing
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all this, I am messaging clients. I am making plans. I am onboarding people. So it's awesome.
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The rest of my day is spent either creating content, doing client calls,
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making people programs, watching and reviewing workout videos. And that is all done remotely.
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It's a beautiful world where I can work from my phone. I'm also in school. So I'm also in school
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which is something I have gotten a lot of slack on because I'm a nutrition dietetics major.
18:23
I think it's very important to to understand school and to go through it. But it is you don't have
18:29
to take everything from it. It's okay to have a mixed view on things. Don't worry guys. I don't
18:35
support seed oils over saturated fat. You can not get too influenced by the system is what you're
18:40
saying. No, it's important to have that self-discipline to sit there and do some hard work for a few
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hours that you don't want to do. I think that's valuable. I think that's the only reason why I'm in
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school. As soon as I'm done with school, I hope to venture off on my own business and be successful
18:56
outside of school. But yeah, that is majority of what I do throughout the day. Since
19:01
when he last talked I haven't missed the gym. So I haven't missed the gym in over five years.
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I take one day off a week and on that one day off I usually hike and I go for a long hike. Throughout
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the day I will go out and walk by the beach and I'll use my phone. I'm not too worried about
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the radiation and everything. I don't live near 5G. I made sure to move to a spot that was
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away from it. I'm very intentional with my choices and on the weekends I'll go out. I'll have
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time with family friends. I'll have that balance. But most of the time I'm very dialed in when I do
19:31
especially with my nighttime routine and my sleep as well. So you're now, are you in your late 20s
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or early 30s now? I'm 23 dude. Holy moly. So this has been a really quick process. I mean from
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18 to 23 really, right? I learned quick man. I absorb everything. Absolutely.
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Are you not drinking much, not doing too much? I haven't. I don't drink alcohol. I don't care
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for it. My friends surf. They play pickleball. We work out. We eat fruit and meat. There's
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cool people down here. It's a big reason why I moved to Florida. In New York we don't have that.
20:04
It's just mind blowing to me. You know, you guys like your awareness and I mean this is a lot
20:11
of what we're promoting on this channel. It's like taking the best of the past. You know taking
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some ancestral principles, taking the best even from just 20 years ago, 15 years ago,
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and bringing them to the present and you're very much doing it without even having to think too
20:27
hard about it. I find that incredible. I do think about it a lot. I try not to get to the level
20:32
of being too extreme where it would interfere with being social. I feel like if you're in your 20s
20:37
and you need to drink to be social, that's a problem. That's something that I'm not for. I think
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a lot of people just default when I say no to drink because they know I'm a trainer and a lot
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of trainers don't drink because obviously you would interfere with their physique and it would be
20:54
it would be pretty tough to drink a lot as a trainer. I know some that do but very rare and they
20:58
often have very good genetics which I do not for fat loss, stuff like that. But yeah, there's a
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lot of intention behind when I do. I try and be super balanced. I try and be as much as locked in as
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I can throughout my time where I'm with myself. I think that's important and I have a very open mind
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and I'm willing to look at any research that's presented and read through it. Big reason why I went
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to school by the way. A lot of people in the carnivore vegan community eat the over extremes.
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They don't know how to read research that well. I didn't know how to read that well. I didn't know
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how to read a randomized control trial or a men analysis of something. See if something's peer review.
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I didn't know any of that. I just shone with the studies that everybody said. That's a big reason why
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I went to school to be honest is to really learn how to read hard research. So if somebody tries to
21:47
make a bold claim, I can come right back out them with solid evidence and yeah, there's another
21:52
extreme too. There's the evidence-based community which a lot of my followers are from now but
21:58
mostly I think they take it too far. There's a degree where you have to have both. You have to have
22:02
mixed opinions. You have to have personal beliefs on what works for you and you have to have
22:07
research. It's all three. You can't just be, oh, research says this so we need to follow it
22:12
blindly and you also can't be, hey, this worked for me so I have to follow it or this worked for
22:17
X, Y and Z so I have to strictly follow it. So you have to have, you have to have a mix and I think
22:21
school taught me that and that was a good part about school. Clearly you're bringing up like, oh,
22:26
I'm in school and you're aware that in many ways the education system is co-opted. I mean, I
22:31
think that that's where your comments are coming from. I'm like, yeah, I'm in school but I also
22:36
can see through some of it, right? So you're admitting that but isn't that true with the research as
22:41
well? There's some research that is funded by Big Ag or by ultra-process food companies that's
22:48
clearly co-opted. It's clearly like they are producing the outcome they want that's not necessarily
22:54
the one that's accurate. I think it's so cool that I get involved with the community that I did
22:59
before. I went to school and really decided to do nutrition research like in school and major
23:03
in it because I can see through that BS right away and it's a very powerful tool to have.
23:10
Once someone sites me those 10 or 11 studies on seed oils and how they're totally fine or when
23:15
you're replaced with saturated fat, everybody says, oh, it's an equal or slightly better than saturated
23:24
fat when you're when you replace them. Until you actually like read those studies and I can
23:28
really read past the abstract and get into P values and all this sort of scientific stuff
23:35
that I won't go too deep into. But you could read that a lot of the saturated fat studies are
23:39
group with trans fats and it's a huge problem. So if somebody is just quoting these 10 studies and
23:46
saying, oh, this is this dismiss it and move on. It's good to know past that. It's good to know
23:51
people that can read past that and can have still an open view that aren't extreme. It's
23:56
a very hard balance to come across, but I have on social media. So I'm definitely grateful
24:02
for that and to meet those people. This is another piece that I'm kind of blown away with is that
24:08
you don't seem pessimistic. You kind of came out of this system, you know, in a sense,
24:13
recognizing I have all these health issues because of this system, right? Because of what I've
24:18
been taught to do, you went down different avenues that they proved it somewhat, but then they
24:24
also seem to extreme and now you're finding this balance. But I don't hear a lot of pessimism
24:29
from you. I hear gratitude and optimism. Where do you think that's coming from? It's such a
24:34
young age. I feel like most back in the day, most young people were seen as just angry and frustrated
24:39
with this system, but you seem kind of at peace with it. Joking, but also not joking. I get a lot
24:44
of sunlight, man. I feel really good. So when you live a really healthy lifestyle and your entire
24:50
lifestyle is not surrounded by one extreme diet and it's a mix of all these things, like I sleep
24:55
like a champion. I sleep insane. It's a reason why my brain is firing off on this podcast and
25:00
can be efficient throughout the day is have all these things going for me. I go for walks outside
25:05
each day. I make sure my contacts are off. The UV is hitting my eye. I ground it on the beach
25:10
each morning. When you're in this routine and you're pretty dialed in, you feel really good and
25:15
that definitely rubs off on people. So I think before, like I said, people can get so caught up
25:21
in just diet alone while I do think it's extremely powerful and one of the most powerful tools.
25:27
Many don't look at the big picture either. It's a state of being and it's a balance.
25:32
All right. Well, let's talk about the things that are working really well if you were to
25:37
pick a handful. So it sounds like sun is one. So light. When you move from New York to Florida,
25:44
what were some of the most immediate changes you saw in your health due to the light difference?
25:49
Energy is the biggest one. I fell drained. I fell tired when you're staring at a screen consistently
25:55
and it's a foot in front of your face. It's not so natural and you don't feel that good.
26:00
That in my environment when I moved down here, but the main thing was being closer to the equator
26:04
being exposed to the right rays and going out at the right times. I think it's very important
26:09
that if you are someone with a sedentary job, you either do one or two things. You wake up early and
26:14
you go watch a sunset and go for a little walk. It doesn't matter if you have to put a jacket on.
26:18
I didn't do this a few years ago or watch the sunrise get up early before your job or stay out
26:26
for a 10 minute walk after dinner and get that light in your eyes. I think energy wise,
26:31
it's made me extremely efficient and I think it's really impacted sleep like nothing else.
26:36
You can tweak all the little things to your diet, but if you're sitting inside in a room with a
26:41
flickering blue light consistently for eight hours, you're just not going to feel as good and it's
26:47
things because some people have to provide for their family and that's what they have to do and it's
26:51
part of the modern world. But it's also important that you recognize where you come from and you have
26:55
that balance too. So like I said, I'm extremely lucky that I've transitioned into a remote position
27:01
and I can take my phone with me outside and do work while I walk. I never had that before.
27:06
As a trainer in person in New York, a few years ago, gyms are the same thing. So when I'm in the gym,
27:11
it's for 45 minutes a day and I'm out. If I'm doing cardio, it's outside. Sure, if it's 100 degrees
27:16
in the summer, maybe I'll do cardio inside. It is what it is. But most trainers are just sitting
27:21
under that fluorescent light for hours a day, training people. And by the time you're done with
27:25
your shift, you're so drained, you don't want to do anything. It doesn't matter what fuel you put
27:28
in the tank with food if your environment and your hormones are not set up correctly. Are you wearing
27:35
blue-like blocking glasses? I do. So we're on this podcast for like an hour. And if I'm on my computer,
27:41
screen, I have a filter on it. I use a program called Iris. It mimics the UV patterns that you get
27:47
from nature on your computer. Like it will self dim for you when needed. They will put less blue
27:51
light on the screen, less flicker, stuff like that. So that is a really cool program. I highly recommend
27:56
people get that. I'm not affiliated with them or anything, although I would love to be. I use
28:00
Iris on my computer. And if I'm doing schoolwork on my computer, which I do school remotely as well,
28:05
I do everything on purpose, Matt. When I'm doing remote school, it's going to be five, six hours,
28:10
or I'm doing check-in calls on my computer with my clients, something that I still can't avoid in
28:13
my life. And it's okay. It's normal to have some time to sit and use your computer in life. I
28:18
understand that. But I just make sure that I do wear the blue-like glasses when I'm staring at my
28:23
screen for more than an hour or two. I think that's really important. I think the Iris filter is
28:28
really powerful too. If I'm doing work at night, sometimes it happens. I'm starting a business,
28:32
and I'm doing work at night, past when I should be doing work. It's part of what you have to do.
28:38
If you want to be successful, you have to put in work and some hours where it might not necessarily
28:43
be optimal. I'll throw on the red-like glasses and I'll put on a red light. I have a street lamp
28:48
outside, unfortunately, that I don't have control of. So I will close my blinds, try and just dim my
28:53
environment and chill out and do the best you can. You don't have to be perfect with your choices
28:58
because they will compound either way. If you're doing a lot of the stuff, right? It will compound.
29:02
So if you get Iris and you put the program into computer and you put your phone on red light,
29:06
it's so much better than not doing that at all. It's not about being perfect. I'm not perfect. I
29:12
have a lot of things that I want to fix in my environment. It's still a lot of things that I want to
29:15
be healthier. I always strive to do that, but it's also cool to have balance. Balance doesn't mean
29:21
let yourself eat a bunch of junk or you sit inside for the entire day. Balance is still going
29:26
for a walk each day and then spending time with friends, family, inside. It's good to have both
29:31
with the modern world. Light is a big change for you. What would you say the next one would be
29:38
just easing up on the diet and being more mindful about the food you're eating versus
29:44
following a certain diet try? Would you say that's the other big one that's been the shift for you?
29:49
Mentally, yeah. I do think sleep is more important. I mean, it's like a try end. If you get good
29:54
light, you're going to sleep really well. If I do not sleep well and I eat the perfect diet,
29:59
I'm still going to over consume total calories, total energy, and I'm still going to gain weight.
30:04
So many people are focused on this one little tweak they can make for their diet.
30:08
Oh my goodness, this thing in a study had one percent more heavy metal or microplastic.
30:13
Bro, if you're sleeping five hours a night, that has to be fixed first. That has to be fixed first.
30:17
So many people need to lock in on that. It's crazy because every video I hear about sleep is
30:22
this is underrated or this is overlooked and still nobody does anything about it.
30:25
So I am starting a sleep product company that I'm excited to launch either this year at the end
30:30
of this year or next year to help improve people sleep naturally. I think it's a really cool path
30:35
that people should go down and it can be as life changing as diet. So in my opinion,
30:40
being that my diet was already pretty good, I would tweak light and then I would tweak sleep
30:46
in my personal life before diet. It's a hot take, but.
30:50
No, I agree. And then what would you say is the other pillar? Would you say exercise in terms of
30:56
what has consistently been effective for you? Listen, having lean muscle mass is extremely powerful.
31:02
There's an extreme with this too. You can take steroids, you can be a bodybuilder,
31:05
you can be unhealthy, you can get unhealthily lean as a male. So there's extremes you could take
31:10
with any of this and it's important. That's why I said health, the state health is a balance.
31:14
I think that should be a main takeaway of our chat today, but it's extremely important.
31:19
I argue movement is more important. I think movement, exercise, cardio, whatever you want to call that
31:24
is so valuable. That's also going to play a role of how much you eat, how well you sleep,
31:29
how much light you get, so on and so forth. You can sit by the pool and get all this light,
31:34
but if you're not moving, you're not expecting energy, your body, your hormones,
31:38
they're not going to send the same signals to stop eating as if you were normally walking
31:43
and doing all these other things from metabolism that are powerful and exercise. So everybody focuses,
31:49
especially in your realm and my realm on on social media, everyone's main focus is nutrition.
31:55
It's just all nutrition, nothing else, make this one change, make this tiny little swap,
31:59
switch from this microplastic salt to this one. When in reality, we need to move, we need to sleep,
32:03
we need to get good light in our eyes, we need to get toxins out of our environment,
32:07
we need to be social and we need to create that spiritual and mental balance as well.
32:13
I think, you know, ancestors, we are taught to look to our elders and to not only respect them,
32:19
but to, you know, honor their experiences, but I also believe that it's important for us to look
32:24
to our youth and kind of meet them where they are and see how are they living what's their mindset
32:29
and maybe there's something for those of us in later generations to learn from you.
32:36
And that's why it felt so important to talk to you because you really have been on an accelerated
32:41
journey in terms of health. I mean, just to put in perspective, dude, like I didn't experience
32:47
connecting food to my health until I was in my early 20s. And then I would say that I really didn't
32:54
deal with my picky eating and my kind of like my own food journey stuff until I was in my 30s.
33:01
And I would even take that even further and say that it didn't fully come to terms with it and
33:07
find balance where I wasn't like binge eating or like, you know, doing something that was
33:12
destructive, diet-wise until only like three years ago.
33:18
You just figure out a lot of it out. It doesn't matter when, at least you did it.
33:21
Now you can look back and be like, yeah, at least I did make these changes. So then when you get
33:24
to 80, you're, you know, you're still going to be fine. I screwed up a lot of stuff in my life when
33:28
I was a kid. And unfortunately, when you're a kid and you're obese, it's not much your fault.
33:33
You're presented with food, food tastes good. You don't know anything. You're not educated.
33:37
It is who puts the food in front of you and parents' schools. Am I blaming my own parents?
33:41
I don't think they did anything wrong. But they just followed along with all the other parents.
33:46
And it's not their individual fault. It's the entire system. And I can go back and say the same
33:51
thing. But it's important not to do that. It's important just to know where you're at and grow.
33:54
And I think that's what I've continued to do over the past few years. Like I said, we're only
33:59
going to live so long regardless. It's important to focus on quality of life too. And if your quality
34:03
life gets so extreme because you can't go out to eat and eat with people or you have to be that
34:08
one person in your environment that does things so differently that everybody looks at you differently.
34:12
I think there's a downside to that too. It's a spectrum. And this mental balance you really have
34:18
to have when you dive into all of this because once you start learning stuff and you're passionate
34:25
about ancestral health and just general health, there's a really deep rabbit hole to go down man.
34:31
There's so many different things you can go down and so many things you can pick apart.
34:35
You just do the best you can. You slowly make some swaps over time. And eventually in a few years
34:39
from now, you only thank yourself for making these swaps. Just don't go too hard too fast.
34:43
I've done that in my younger years, but it's important not to look back and be like,
34:48
oh, what can I reverse about that? You didn't know. Even you didn't know. You're in your 30s and 40s
34:52
and you didn't know. Like you're not exposed to this. People in your environment weren't talking
34:56
about light. Maybe not. They weren't talking about EMFs. They weren't talking about all this stuff.
35:00
So how are you supposed to know? You don't know. You're just born and stuff's in your environment.
35:04
So when you find stuff out, it's important to make swaps, but make swaps that don't air
35:09
fear so much with your lifestyle that make it overwhelming or extreme. That's very hard for
35:13
people to do by the way. It's not easy. What would you say to the parents out there who have young
35:19
kids, you know, 12, 13, 14, 15, you know, middle school to high school, I'm assuming this was you,
35:27
but like where their kids are overweight, their kids are eating things that they don't agree with,
35:32
particularly since, you know, as parents, we can't control. Once a kid leaves the home,
35:36
you can't control what they're going to eat, right? So what would you say to those parents that are,
35:42
you know, frightened or concerned for their kids that their kids are not going to find their way?
35:47
You do the best you can in your environment. I tell the same thing to my clients who are adults
35:52
and trying to make better nutrition choices. There's no age on improving your health.
35:56
The more you can do it with the less extremes, probably the better. What I'm hearing is that
36:00
that was you, right? You were that younger kid who was overweight. Like, what were you feeling
36:05
back then? Were you drowning? Did you feel like you could, you had anyone to lean to? Like, what was
36:10
the prominent feeling when you were in that state before you started losing weight? I'm talking when
36:17
you were feeling kind of overweight. I want to say that I think about this a lot. I'm 23. When
36:23
I'm 33, I do want to be a dad in 10 years. So it's something I think about two years of
36:27
past since our last podcast, five years might pass again. And boom, I could be a dad right there.
36:32
And it's something that I do think about I just try not to overwhelm my space in my brain with it,
36:36
but I do the best I can. And as a parent, I'm going to go through this too. There's going to be
36:41
times where my kids are going to eat junk food. There's going to be times my kids out late drinking.
36:45
The only thing you can do is control your environment and let your kid make the mistakes,
36:50
but not something that will permanently damage them. If you let your kid be obese,
36:54
that can permanently damage them. If you let your kid go out and drink every once in a while,
36:58
or eat some junk food with their friends, it's not going to cause permanent damage.
37:02
Just make sure your environment is controlled. So you can be a little strict in the house.
37:07
If your kids want to go out and get sick, filet, or get Wendy's, or whatever,
37:11
fine, go out with your friends. Don't do it alone. Don't do it out of spite. Make sure that your
37:15
intentions are there and you teach them at a very young age. And you also can't be extreme.
37:20
You can't say you'll never have this, never have this, never had this because teenagers
37:24
are rebellious by nature. They're going to break out. They're going to go to the other extreme
37:28
where all they eat is crap or they drink or they smoke or they do all these things that
37:32
you're so stern about in the house. Balance for parents. It's important too, if you're raising a
37:37
kid to keep your environment mostly under control, teach them principles young, let your kid learn.
37:44
I learned what was it that actually got you out of like that state.
37:50
My health journey actually, I'm a huge Kobe Bryant fan. I love Kobe Bryant. Watched him
37:55
growing up. Big sports guy growing up. Not as much anymore. I look baseball now, but I still love
38:00
Kobe. Kobe Bryant passed away in 2020 and it's exactly when I started my journey. When he passed
38:05
away, it definitely hit me that no matter how rich, successful, famous, wealthy you are, you could
38:12
just go tomorrow in a free accident. I didn't think about that. I was 18. When we're 18, we all
38:18
think that we're going to live forever. Even at a younger age, you don't understand the concept
38:23
that you might die. Like you don't understand that stuff. It's deep. It's hard. It's hard
38:26
conversation to have with yourself. And nothing really hit me until that happened and I realized,
38:30
oh crap, my life could be shortened because of what I'm doing or my quality of life might not
38:35
be good and I might not be where I want to be because of how I'm treating myself. And I could
38:40
go tomorrow in a freak accident. I didn't think about this. So I live every day. Like it's my last
38:45
and it's very corny, but I truly do see if I can find joy in every single day. You never know.
38:51
And that's when it really hit when he when he passed because he was somebody I really look up to.
38:55
I watched all his games and definitely shocked me and that was the reason why I started. I said,
39:00
you know what? I'm going to try and lose weight. I'm going to try and be healthier. When you're 18
39:04
and you're obese, like most fat kids don't think they'll ever see a six pack. Like it wasn't in my
39:09
head that I could have a six pack and be shredded. I didn't think that that was possible. I think
39:14
it's important to educate people as well. Like when I started my weight loss journey, when we
39:18
originally started talking at the beginning of this podcast, I did so many things wrong. I wasn't
39:23
educated. I didn't know. So that's what I do now. That's why I have the passion to do what I do
39:27
now is because if there's somebody in their 20s or 30s watching us, it's not too late either to
39:31
make a change. You just need to be educated. Once you are educated, then it's your responsibility
39:36
to do something about it. So that's how I feel about that and that's why I got into health in
39:41
general is because of that change where Kobe passed away and I said, you know what? Let me do
39:46
something about it. You don't believe it's possible as a kid. It's really powerful. I appreciate
39:51
you sharing that. What I hear you saying is that as a parent, you can control the environment of the
39:58
home, right? So make sure that that environment reflects the kind of health you want to see in your
40:04
kid. What they do outside, they're going to do, but always try to maintain that home is the sanctuary
40:10
so they know that they can always come back to it. And what I also hear you saying is that you
40:14
almost do have to trust the kids process because obviously you didn't know you were going to take
40:20
away from Kobe's death, you know, a life change that you did, but that is what happened. So maybe
40:25
as parents, we can hear that story and say, you know what? My kid's on a journey and it's their
40:30
journey. And I'm just here to make sure they don't, you know, kill themselves or get maimed,
40:36
but like that I can maybe have some faith and trust in that their journey, they're going to get
40:42
from it what they need. And then from there, let them have the trials and tribulations, but just be
40:49
there, whether it's educate or to bounce back or support them in getting education around it.
40:55
That's very properly said. The one thing I want to, I left out that I want to touch upon is,
41:00
I'm going to be the coolest role model. I want to be the shredded dad that the kids look up to
41:05
and all the other dads are obese or onozemic and skinny fat or whatever. And my kids are looking
41:12
up because I'm ripped and I'm the ripped dad and I think it's cool. And I think that's the example
41:17
I want to lead by and parents, if you're leading by example when your kids grow up, they're going to
41:22
notice they might not do it, but they're definitely going to notice and don't force somebody into
41:27
something. Just set your environment up so that stuff happens on its own most of the time. Don't be
41:32
too extreme. I can't force a client to do an elimination diet. I can offer. I can say, Hey, this is
41:37
what I did. Hey, this is what this paper said, but I don't force somebody to do a specific kind of
41:42
diet. Like, no, just you do what's best for you. I try and tell people focus on whole, whole
41:47
nutrient-intense foods, make it a priority, see what works best, see how you feel,
41:52
focus on overall health. Here's some things I did that helped me. That content for me is
41:56
something that I'll look back on in a few years and I'll always be proud of that I did.
42:00
That's how you have to do it as a parent. You have to lead by example. Very important.
42:04
Brennan, I so appreciate your time today. Can people work with you no matter where they live and
42:09
how in and if so, how can they find you? Totally. People can work with me right through
42:13
Instagram is the best place to find me. It's Brandon Miller fit on Instagram and you could shoot
42:19
me a DM going the link in my bio when I have my products out. Hopefully soon for my natural sleep
42:26
company that I'm really excited to be launching off. That will be on my Instagram as well for sure.
42:31
I'll make sure to promote that and that's where people go find me Instagram is the best.
42:35
Awesome. Well, thank you for joining and thank you all for
42:40
watching or listening. This is exciting as a father. I really appreciate you.
42:46
While you can't represent your generation, I appreciate you shining a light,
42:50
being a beacon of light for what's possible in someone that's so young. So thank you for
42:56
continuing to shine that light and I wish you so much success and joy. Continue joy on your journey.
43:02
Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity. It was it was a pleasure.
43:05
Thank you so much for joining me on every day ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode hit
43:13
subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You could find the show notes links and resources
43:19
mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's EATPLUCK.com. And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out
43:30
of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.