Ep122: ‘Superfood Hunter’ Darin Olien On How To Be Healthy, Fit, and Eternally Awesome

Zack Arnold 0:00

My name is Zack Arnold. I'm a Hollywood film and television editor, a documentary director, father of two, an American Ninja Warrior in training and the creator of optimize yourself. For over 10 years now I have obsessively searched for every possible way to optimize my own creative and athletic performance. And now I'm here to shorten your learning curve. Whether you're a creative professional who edits, writes or directs, you're an entrepreneur, or even if you're a weekend warrior, I strongly believe you can be successful without sacrificing your health or your sanity in the process. You ready? Let's design the optimized version of you.

Hello, and welcome to the optimize yourself podcast. If you're a brand new optimizer, I welcome you and I sincerely hope that you enjoy today's conversation. If you were inspired to take action after listening today, why not tell a friend about the show and help Spread the Love. And if you're a longtime listener and optimizer O.G., welcome back. Whether you're brand new or you're seasoned vet, if you have just 10 seconds today, it would mean the world to me if you click the subscribe button in your podcast app of choice, because the more people that subscribe, the more that iTunes and the other platforms can recognize this show, and thus the more people that you and I can inspire, to step outside their comfort zones to reach their greatest potential. With health and more importantly, maintaining strong immune systems at the forefront of everybody's mind these days, we are all looking for simple ways to boost our immunity and increase your energy levels. And whether you're unemployed, working from home or back at the office, or just trying to juggle homeschooling the kids while maintaining your own sanity. Frankly, the thought of implementing healthier nutrition and fitness habits right now. Well, that's daunting at best. And let's be honest, horrifying at worst. But luckily, today's guest is here to simplify this process for all of us, no matter where you might need the most support. Darin Olien, aka the superfood Hunter is the co star of the hit Netflix docu series Down To Earth alongside Zac Efron. Darin has traveled the globe for decades studying food and nutrition and he is known for uncovering some of the healthiest superfoods known to man. He's also a supplements formulator. He's the creator of Shakeology, which many of you might know is my go to meal when I'm short on time, but I'm unwilling to sacrifice on nutrition. And he's also the author of The New York Times bestseller Super Life, the five fixes that will keep you healthy, fit and eternally awesome. And on top of all of that, he is also responsible for discovering what has become my favorite brain foods snack, the verrucas nut. This nut is kind of like a supercharged peanut, but it has less fat has less calories, and it's what I often refer to as my brainstorming, because every time I need something crunchy to get my brain going again in the afternoons, this is my go to snack, and I guarantee they definitely be a bowl of m&ms when It comes to your creativity. If you're looking to learn about what simple yet profound steps you can take either get started with your wellness journey or take it to a completely different level. Darinn is a wealth of knowledge on both nutrition and health, and he graciously provides an abundance of his advice and tips on how all of us can stay active, be creative, and keep our bodies fueled with the best food possible. If you're looking to learn about simple yet profound steps that you can take to either get started with your wellness journey or take it to a completely different level. Darinn is a wealth of knowledge on both nutrition and health and he graciously provides us with an abundance of advice and tips on how we can stay active, be creative and keep our bodies fueled with the best food possible. If today's interview inspires you to get up and start moving again, but you have spent so many years stuck in your desk chair and you are so out of shape that you're not even sure where to start. Well then you're in luck because I have over 50 pages of tips. tricks, strategies, and my favorite tools to share with you and my ultimate guide to building a more active workstation. This Ultimate Guide is a collection of over a decade of my own research and experimentation that summarizes how I stay active, focused and energetic all day long, Despite living in front of a computer for the past 20 years. This includes my favorite recommendations for standing desks, ergonomic desk chairs and mice, tools and equipment that I keep within arm's reach all day long to alleviate and eliminate wrist, forearm, shoulder neck and lower back pains. Seriously, this is a manifesto on how to not let your desk chair slowly kill you to download your free Ultimate Guide visit optimizeyourself.me/workstationultimateguide. Alright, without further ado, my conversation with superfood hunter Darin Olien made possible today by our amazing sponsors, ever cast and arrow driven who are going to be featured a little bit later in today's interview to Access the shownotes for this and all previous episodes, as well as to subscribe so you don't miss the next inspirational interview, please visit optimizer self.me slash podcast.

I'm here today with Darin Olien who is a superfood Hunter. And he's actually been dubbed the Indiana Jones of superfoods. And if you're thinking what the hell does any of that even mean? Don't worry, we're definitely going to get into it further. Darin is also the author of the book Super Life, the five fixes that will keep you healthy, fit and eternally awesome. He's also the formulator of my favorite go to meal replacement supplements Shakeology, which I've talked about ad nauseam for years and years and years. And even though Darin you didn't specifically mention this in your bio, I want to make it very clear that you are just kind of an all around bad ass. So I'm very excited. We're finally able to make this happen today.

Darin Olien 5:50

Yeah. I'm stoked. I appreciate everything you said. And I look forward to a cool conversation.

Zack Arnold 5:58

Yeah, this this is gonna be a A lot of fun. So I I've known about you for years. I've been in the the Tony Horton camp, which is kind of our mutual connection and how we were able to make this happen today been a Shakeology user I think probably since I don't know 2012 2013 I've talked about it a fair amount on the podcast in the past talked about it on the blog, but where we really got introduced in person was you were speaking at one of Tony Horton's Paragon events last fall, and I feel pretty good about what I've learned about diet and nutrition and kind of going to the next level of biohacking. But when you started to speak, it was basically 90 minutes of my jaw dropping continuously being like, Oh my god, there's a whole nother level, to the way that we look at health and nutrition and supplementation and even water Oh, for the love of god if you open my eyes about water. So what I really want to get into today, there's really only two areas that I want to focus on. Otherwise you and I are going to be talking for like eight hours, and I want to be respectful of your time but I could seriously Do this for eight hours. That's how excited I am about all this. But I really want to talk about nutrition. And I want to talk about water. Because these are the things that we have the most control over, which is, I'm sure you've heard Tony say this 100 different times, there's two things in life that we can control how much we move and what we put in our mouths. And I want to focus on what we're putting in our mouths, but not so much how it affects just health and longevity and all these statistics, but more for my audience, really understanding how are the things that I'm eating and drinking, affecting my performance pretty much in the moment, whether it's, I feel onpoint and I've got great cognitive function, and I'm creative, or I'm lethargic all the time, and I'm just, I've got headaches and I can't focus and I'm tired. A lot of this is affected by the choices that we make and what we consume either food or drink. So that's really what I want to get into. But really the first question that I have for you, I would love to know if you were at a party or you're at a family event where people really don't know who you are. They have no context. How in the world do you describe to people what you actually do for a living?

Darin Olien 8:06

Well, I do I do use that opening tag that that was given to me really, I think it came from Businessweek article. almost a decade ago, this guy came and kind of shadow me around from Businessweek. And then he came out with the article and half the time, you don't know what the hell these guys are gonna say or talk about. And then he coined this term, the superfood Hunter. And so that's usually what I throw out. It's kind of funny because I wouldn't have given myself that title for sure. But, but since it's kind of stuck, it's it's something to when I say it, people are instantly curious about it because they've never heard it before. So that usually invokes an interesting conversation about what that is. And then I say things like, well, I run around the planet. been to 40 plus countries, looking for herbs. Nuts botanicals superfoods that that ultimately have been used for thousands of years and procure them in a fair traded way and, and sometimes collect them in the wild with the help of indigenous people. At the same time, the ethnos side of things where we understand culture, and the people, I try to bring those botanicals out to people in a way that their process so that they, they keep the compounds and the active constituents that are the most important so that they activate that which supports the body. And so that's, I mean, that's not the opening line, but that's usually the conversation as it dives into that rabbit hole, where it's usually I just go find the greatest plants in the world and get them out to people because usually along the way, people process it incorrectly. They don't take it care of the environment correctly. They don't take care of the farmers in the in the foragers correctly. And I just kind of made it my mission to get the greatest botanicals. Do it correctly, and then get it so that people can benefit from these plant medicines. Because one of my arguments is that if you're learning about this stuff, and you want your health and your energy, and your vitality, and your cognition, and your even if you're aging and you want that to slow down, if you really want these botanicals and you're listening to the marketing of of that, oftentimes these these products don't equal that which the botanical actually is because along the way, it's been processed incorrectly, it's been grown incorrectly. And so that's usually where I just made my life that mission. So at that point, if someone's hung out in that conversation long enough, they quickly realize that number one, they're really fascinated by it or they just have no idea what that I just said. So that's usually but but but again, my my superfood hunting now is one pillar of what I do. And it spawned into so many other things. As you know, the book I wrote environmental things that I'm doing because I've been exposed to so many things as my travels have awarded me. So

Zack Arnold 11:31

out of curiosity as a fellow Midwestern, er, I grew up in northern Wisconsin. I know you grew up in Minnesota, and I've heard you talking about just, you know, chucking the hay bales and like doing all the hard work that you do on a farm, like, I think you and I had very, very similar childhoods and upbringings, which makes me number one very much understand how you've become as successful as you have. But on the other hand, a part of me is wondering, how do you go from being in rural Minnesota as a farmer, it's not like you just were in high school and said, huh, Let me look at majors Oh, superfood Hunter. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to pursue, like, what what's the not to go too deep down the rabbit hole but I'm very curious about people's origin stories and how you became this. So very briefly, how did you get to becoming who's not just a superfood Hunter, but I think I'm pretty pretty accurate in saying you're the superfood Hunter. How does that happen based on where you grew up?

Darin Olien 12:21

Yeah, well, you know, you're right. I mean, I came from, you know, graduating class of 120 kids and, and my father actually was an ag professor at the University of Minnesota. And so he taught farmers business principles and economics and stuff like that. So and then all my cousins were farmers and ranchers and Cowboys, and, you know, all of that stuff. So, you're right, that that that's, that's in me, but I think through a series of events that I saw doors that opened and, you know, as soon as I graduated high school, obviously I want to go to school and play football. So it's so I did that at a d3 school and in Minnesota, in Minneapolis. And so that big move from small town to Minneapolis was huge. And then it was the next series of events was I was starting fullback my sophomore year and got hurt. And that injury became one of the greatest opportunities in my life. Because I then, instead of being a victim to not being able to ever play again, I said, well, I've always loved this whole working out thing. I've loved the intricacy of the body and performance. So I then changed my major changed schools and started studying physiology, nutrition, kinesiology, all of these things. And then that turned on this infinite curiosity about the body that that that clearly even to this day, we are just barely understanding what the hell this miracle is. That we're we get to run around with in terms of a body and how it functions. And then and then really The next one is, as I graduated from college, I saw the door open there and I said, Listen, I got to get out of this Minnesota thing. The day after graduation I jumped on my my motorcycle, and rode to Boulder, Colorado. And then I apprenticed with a guy, exercise physiologist, where I learned a lot of rehabilitation stuff apprentice with another doctor learning more functional medicine stuff. And then along the way I started formulating, and then I started seeing issues in the industry for quality formulations. Inevitably, I started formulating on my own and then when I was doing that and then started to travel Beachbody reached out to me and offered me this this position of formulating this net what's now called Shakeology. And it was, it was a no brainer because, for me, the artistry and the alchemy of putting botanicals together so they work in a symphony and a synergy was something that not only scientific but also just artistic and creative. So that that's the that's that's kind of how, how it went. And, you know, and and, and the flower continues to unfold if, if you were to call it that, and and so I just, you know, again, I never set out to be that person. I was always keen on goals. So, you know, we can only know to the degree at which we can perceive and receive. So I set goals. I went through them. I got my degree I moved to Colorado I learned and I got a degree in masters in psychology along the way too. So every day Goal I'd hit it opened up another door of possibilities and then that other world of possibilities, it would give me more information so I would course correct them. And in that kind of evolution of course correcting eventually I would lead to this passion of discovering plants and kind of rediscovering because I couldn't be so ego filled and bold saying I'm discovering them it's really the the revealing of them in a different sort of way. And then being a catalyst so that they can kind of emerge in a in a broader way so that people can benefit from so that's that's kind of how it unfolded.

Zack Arnold 16:42

Got so you're just as much like the the Christopher Columbus of superfoods. The rediscovery, right.

Darin Olien 16:48

Yeah, yeah. Christopher Columbus tried to try to go to India, and he ended up in America. So I you know, I've also set out Several times to, to look at certain botanicals, I come back with, you know, a list of 10 others I had no idea they even existed. So that's kind of the, the humble journey of every trip I've taken, like literally every trip I discover something new or something people don't know about, or another way of doing something, or processing something. And, and or utilization of something. So, and that's, that's the difference from me and other people I think is, is that I was very, and this is the Minnesota kidding me is like, first off, I want to eyeball these people from around the world. I want to look at them, I want to meet them, I want to understand them. I will understand how they're using these things. And for me, just sitting back and researching something is just boring as hell. But if I can make a greater relationship. Now when I look back and I research something Motivation is infinitely greater because my motivation is, if I do this thing, if I help this botanical, I know I'm helping this group of people, and I know I'm helping this economy and I know, if we're doing this correctly, I'm helping the environment be more sustainable. And I also then no, every future person that's consuming this product is also going to benefit so it becomes this, this whole ism of how I go about stuff. And and that to me is infinitely fulfilling and then on the other side of it is after those people have consumed them, consume those things like Shakeology, and like our new product verrucas you see the benefit that people are getting and also gratefully so I get to hear the benefit that those things have had on somebody and that That to me is like an artist hearing the effect that their music has had on somebody. And that is that is I don't know what's more fulfilling in in some way. life knowing that you've had an impact on them through really the innocence of you following your your truth and honesty actually, and and my truth and honesty was not to be a superfood Hunter was just that the idea that well, this is how it should be done. From my point of view, I should go to those areas I should know these people and I should understand how they use these things. And we should understand how to process things so that those beautiful, amazing medicinal compounds can manifest in future bodies, to the degree at which they've been written about and the science has been studied. And that that really is the essence of how this all kind of went down.

Zack Arnold 19:48

Well, for anybody that's listening right now that wonders why I've been recommending Shakeology for years versus some other protein powder that's $10 less or has four grams more or less This that or the other thing, you just encapsulated all of it beautifully in that speech. It's not just about the message. It's not just about the product. For me, it's so much more about the messenger that's so important to me where it's coming from knowing the people behind the products that I'm consuming. And at first, it was a matter of Oh, well, Beachbody is a multi level marketing company, and they have a bunch of products. And Oh, sure, this is just another one of those protein powders, right? which I'm sure is how a lot of people have come to it. But as I learn more about what was in it, I did a ton of deep research like paying for and reading these deep reports on consumer labs, and learning more about you. I'm like, Whoa, there's nothing else on the market like this. And I want to make sure that people understand that where that comes from, for me is much deeper from the heart and the lasting impact that it has rather than, well, it's by far the best, you know, consumer value or this or that or the other thing. First of all, this stuff tastes better than anything on the market. But secondly, I know that the person behind it is a real person that has real objectives in making the world a better place. And to me all those things are so important. And I say all those because I know that you're not going to market yourself. So I want to help do it for you. Because you're you, you strike me as being very humble, but I want to make sure people understand that that's why I make the choices that I do. And I very much appreciate all the work that you put into your products. And by the way, the verrucas which we may talk about later, oh my god, they're they I am so addicted best nuts ever. Oh my God, what a discovery.

Darin Olien 21:26

Dude. It's crazy though. I

Zack Arnold 21:28

have like four giant bags in my pantry because I have this subscription. And it's what I call my my brain food, my thinking food. So if I want to go into like creativity mode, and I want to brainstorm I've always kind of needed a little bit of a crunch like just gnashing the jaw working through the ideas in my head. And like, Alright, I need to come up with the next great brainstorm where's my bag of burgers. So we can go into those a little bit more later. But I really want to kind of start from the beginning of the conversation because I don't have a ton of biohackers and people that are looking to maximize the ante oxidant or adaptogen, potential of Moringa, so to speak, the people listening are like,

Unknown Speaker 22:04

Ah, what?

Zack Arnold 22:06

So, where I want to start instead is thinking more about the following phrase that I extracted from your book, which I think perfectly encapsulates the conversation that I want to have today. If an alien came from another planet, and they observed how we manage our nutritional lives, he would come to one obvious conclusion. A lot of humans have no interest in being healthy. How did we get here?

Darin Olien 22:32

It's insane. Actually, um, I think, you know, there's so many different ways to answer that. Number one is humbly, I don't know. And number two,

if I can try to answer that it would be slowly giving over our instincts and being manipulated by other mechanisms. And you know, some of those Early, you know, marketing and going emoting marketing, which is marketing goes after your emotions, you know, get this and this will make you better than you are now, kind of thing that slowly can manipulate us, especially when said products are not aligned with the actual marketing in truth and, and that's the thing. I've never marketed anything. I'm just sharing the truth. And if I'm marketing something, I'm not sharing something that I'm truthful. And so that's my point of view. And, and so I think that, you know, our modern day world is pretty gnarly. And over time, we've kind of run into this term that I use quite frequently now more than ever, it's called fatal conveniences. And we've slowly de stressed our lives and far from our ancestors, so we don't create enough stress in our bodies, but we have a lot more Modern day stress to overtake us. So there's different types of stress. There's, there's this chronic, emotional, mental, financial relationship trying to make money, don't lose your money, all these different types of stresses plus there's, there's air stress. Now there's pollution all over our air, there's water stress, with pharmaceutical drugs and PCBs, and chlorine and, and reactive compounds in our water. There's, there's, and there's food stress glyphosate. It's been sprayed on our food for the last 50 years. So so we're getting all this other types of stress. So it's affecting our body but at the same time, we're de stressing ourselves in not a good way. So our bodies are keeping the same temperatures and every environment we go into our car, we put the heater on Go into her house we put that heater on then we're that's why I kind of this other biohacking side which is which is not biohacking. It's just going back to nature. There's there's, you know, increasing articles of like, Hey, get your ass in the sun, get your vitamin D, put your feet on the ground and create a grounding effect and helping this kadian rhythm. Look at look at the early light when you wake up outside without glasses on without some sunglasses, so that your circadian rhythms Can, can turn on and so that you can have more energy throughout the day. And so there's there's many many reasons that we've deconstructed our natural life and reconstructed a modern day life that has made us so bloody lazy that it's gotten us so off track to our instincts. And, and also from a food selection standpoint, we're just manipulated like crazy. Through our senses of sugar, salt, fat, smells, olfactory or olfactory, our nose is one of the most powerful ways to manipulate us. But also that's we're the only mammal on the planet that doesn't food select without using using our nose. So we really should select our food through our nose. And that means smelling your food and then natural state, not not after you've blended it or cooked it or all that stuff that's that's already processed manipulate in some way, which is there's nothing wrong with that. But in terms of food, selecting, your body will instinctually start telling you what foods your body needs at any given time. There's a lot of research around that so and then we've gotten into all kinds of upper respiratory breathing instead of diaphragmatic and mouth breathing. Mouth breathing is very stressful on us. doesn't allow us to shift into parasympathetic nervous system and allows us to stay in that sympathetic stress state. So there's there's a zillion these are these are every statement I just made are our zillion rabbit holes. So how we got here, it's all of that plus 100,000 other things that have deconstructed that which is our nature. And so this kind of new wave called biohacking is it just I mean, aside from all the weird supplements and weird things that people do on the fringe of all this stuff, it's really very basic. And you know, my book is basic eating. And it's funny that you use that quote, because it's so simple in terms of if we went back to the instincts, if I were to ask that said alien that came down if I were to ask all of your listeners right now what do you think really is would be good for you to eat. What actually do you believe would be good for you to drink? What actually do you believe would be good for you to sleep? Like, what do you think your life would be better by doing more of? Do you think that your body would like to move? Do you think your body would like to stretch not sitting in a chair all day? Do you think your body would like to get out during the day rather than sit I realize not all people can can have all of those choices at any given time, but you can make movements towards that. You can stand up partially you can get a standing desk, get air purifiers, you can walk outside for a conference call. You know there's there's things that people can do are working every day inside that can start moving them into a healthier state. Drink better water, can eat better food, that that are structured better for your body to give your body more intimate and effective energy? So, so there's a lot, a lot, a lot of foundational things that people can do just to get back to foundational principles of their life. Because if if if you don't, you 100% will be the victim of you not making those choices. So the choices that you're making of not doing anything, you are becoming the victim of your future very powerfully. And that degeneration of you is going to be a compounding effect. And you will wake up one day and go Why can I see my feet? Why don't I have energy? Why does my back and my neck hurt all the time? Why do I have all of these medications? Why is my LDL so raised? Why don't I have any Energy whatsoever, you know, and this whole list goes on but these things 99% of the issues that most people most normal people are complaining of, they absolutely can start taking the steps out of those things and create huge effect in their lives. for the better.

Zack Arnold 30:22

Yeah. But you know, if I'm just getting old, isn't that just kind of the normal stuff? Like it just seems like everybody I know has gone through it. So it's just part of getting old, isn't it? Yeah.

Darin Olien 30:31

And many people from our part of the world will accelerate that that conversation I I've heard people 35 years ago, years old, saying, Well, you know, I'm getting old. And here's the thing, and I won't even open up the world of consciousness as it relates to your points of view about yourself, affecting your biology, your chemistry, your quantum reality, your atoms, your molecular metabolism, like all of your thought patterns are intimately connected to all of that, to your belief systems are affecting your biology. So if you believe that you'll just accelerate that system, as opposed to saying, Well, listen, I have a body. It's not necessarily Me, me is beyond that without getting too metaphysical, but the truth is that you are a steward of this body. So there's a So being a steward if I was that alien, coming down, and I get to experience this life through this body, then wouldn't I just like as I'm staring out at my car, and it's a little dirty, and I think it needs an oil change. You're not just going to drive your car into into the ditch when it runs out of everything. It's it's this whole idea that we have somehow treated our things just greater than the thing that we have the most intimate connection to and that is our body. So we have lost the ability, we have lost the need. We Intel, we are at this ultimate end, where we are diet diabetic and potentially having to lose digits and limbs and, and or we've generated chronic cancers or chronic pain. And we wait until this area where it's inevitable that we have to do something about it. And that is do you want to accelerate your ability to age? Or do you want to thwart your aging process to stay young, intimately longer, and the longevity research that's going on right now is astonishing. The telomerase and the telomeres, the mitochondrial research, the stem cell research, I've studied stem cells for four and a half years, our ability to turn on Natural Healing mechanisms is, is number one through lifestyle, you can by lowering the amount of caffeine you have every day increases your total potent stem cells ability to repair your body intimately. You don't have to know what these totipotent stem cells are. We can't, we don't need to nerd out about that. But that's what the research says. If you lower your alcohol consumption, you allow your body to repair intimately, a lot more effectively. So, or you can just ignore, ignore all of that. You can wake up slimy coffee, drink to go to sleep every night. You can eat whatever you want, and fast food. And you'll just accelerate out of your biology because time is not the same. As it relates to biology. You can slow things down and you can speed things up. Number one time is an illusion. But then you can just pour gas gasoline on a fire and watch what the fire does. So, you know, no longer can we live in this world where I'm just going to do whatever I want. Great. You have consequences to that. You have been take responsibility for all of the pain that you'll be in in one year, one month. Hell one day. I wake up in the morning, you know, the great greatest thing I do to receive the energy that I get to start the day and that's a leader of pure clean, great electrolyte filled water. You know, the number one thing for lack of energy is dehydration. Right so they they've proven that kids not drinking water, and going to school by them just drinking. Eight to 10 ounces of water before they go to school increases their test scores by up to 35% Like just drinking water. But what did everyone do they get into these habits of reaching for the damn coffee, which is it's a liquid, but it's also a diuretic, so it's taking more water from your cells. So ultimately, you're creating a more and more deeply dehydrated, dehydrated state. You know, 7% of all Americans don't drink an ounce of water a day. And everyone complains, everyone I know complains of lack of energy. And so most of us are walking around in a severely dehydrated state, and at the core of every disease or dysfunction, dehydration. Dehydration also increases intimate inflammation because it's trying to protect itself from this dehydrated state. So so there's a lot of things from a foundational place if you implement them. You You will be in Ultimately, and effectively and immediately improving your life. And who doesn't want to have energy and vitality and have a little greater outlook on their life and it's not. You don't have to be, you know, get a master's in nutrition. It's just basic principles. And then once you have more energy, then you go, Oh, I feel great. It's a funny thing being human that we're just get used to the state that we're in. And once you feel better than you realize you weren't, you didn't feel that great before. But it's so so you get used to that state, but once you feel better, you're like, holy, I really feel good now. So I just want to implore people that if you if you make a few corrections, and you don't have to make them all at once, but even focusing on that hydration Man, your life can change within days.

Zack Arnold 37:04

And that's basically an encapsulation of the last 10 years of my life. And my life story in a nutshell is speaking of water, just the this idea of the frog being in boiling water. that analogy now, you know, debunked is a myth. But it's still a great analogy, where you're just in the dark room all day long, you're working hard and you hit the brain fog in the afternoon, well, pound to five hour energy or a Starbucks drink or whatever it is get through the day. I'll be healthy at hiatus, and you feel all right, I guess, you know, it's not horrible. Like you don't feel like you're dying or anything, but it's not that great. But then all of a sudden, something happens. And this happened to me where it was via mental health that I had my awakening where I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety. And I realized there has to be a better way to do this. And I started to go down the rabbit hole, took a lot of the wrong path, took some of the right paths, but then the key was All of a sudden, I felt really good for the first time since I ever remember. And I was like, Wait a second, this is possible. I didn't know that I could even feel this way. And then when I started to slip backwards, like you just said it was, wait, this is how I felt all the time. How is that acceptable? How did I allow that to happen? But when you're the frog in boiling water, metaphorically speaking, you don't really realize it until you've seen the other side. So I can very, very much relate to all this and what I love so much about your approach. And I think that why we gravitated towards each other, or I gravitated specifically to you anyway, is this idea of simplicity. I'm not really into all the deep, crazy bio hacks and the next level stuff. I just want to know basic, simple stuff that I can do as an every man that's trying to make a living and trying to do creative work, like where do I even start and it really is a lot simpler than we think. And I want to continue to pull this thread that you started which is water, because water I mean is by far The easiest place I think, for somebody to start, but it's also not as easy as you might think. And I was actually going to bring up the statistic that you had brought up about how 7% of people have no water at all. And it shocked me as I was working with people in my coaching and mentorship program. And we were working through their daily habits. And I would say, Well, you know, how much water you to drink? Well, I don't really drink any water. No, but I mean, like, give me an idea of how many like is one cup, two cups, three cups? I don't drink any water ever. And I was like, how is that even possible like, but then they go through and they say oh, but I drink plenty of liquids. I've got the the the coffee like you said or you know sometimes I'll do Gatorade to get some extra energy or Snapple you know, the five hour energies sometimes it's soda if I really kind of need that extra kick. And I mean, all that stuff is just basically destroying your ability to have any level of cognition or creativity whatsoever. Am I wrong? My sincerest apologies for the interruption in the middle of this interview. But if you are a content creator or you work in the entertainment industry, not only is the following promo not an interruption, but listening has the potential to change your life. Because collaborating with every cast is that powerful. Here's a brief excerpt from a recent interview that I did with ever cast co founders, Brad Thomas and award winning editor Roger Barton, living this

Roger 40:19

lifestyle of a feature film editor has really had an impact on me. So I was really looking for something to push back against all of these lifestyle infringement that are imposed on us both by schedules and expectations. When you guys demoed whatever cast for me that first time my jaw hit the floor, I'm like, Oh my god, this is what I've been waiting for. for a decade.

Zack Arnold 40:42

I also had the same reaction when I first saw ever cast two words came to mind game changer. Our goal honestly, is

Brad 40:48

to become the zoom for creatives, whatever it is, you're streaming, whether it's editorial, visual effects, Pro Tools for music composition, LIVE SHOT cameras, it's consistent audio and video. Lip Sync always stays in sync. Whether you're in a live session where you're getting that feedback immediately, or you can't get it immediately so you record the session and you can share those clips with people on the production team where there's no room for any confusion. It's like this is exactly what the director wants. This is exactly what the producer wants. What

Roger 41:14

matters most to me is it makes the entire process more efficient, which then translates to us as creatives who spend way too much time in front of computers. We get to shut it down, and we get to go spend time with our friends and family.

Zack Arnold 41:27

The biggest complaint and I'm sure you guys have heard this many, many times. This looks amazing. I just can't afford

Brad 41:32

it. Tesla had to release the Model S before they released the model three. So by the end of the year, we are going to be releasing a sub $200 version a month of efficacy for the freelancer in indie creatives. Anyone who is a professional video creator

Roger 41:48

outside of Hollywood, I think what we've learned over the last few months is that this technology can translate to better lives for all of us. They give us more flexibility and control while still maintaining Creativity, the creative momentum and the quality of work

Zack Arnold 42:03

I cannot stress this enough ever cast is changing the way that we collaborate. If you value your craft your well being and spending quality time with the ones you love ever cast now makes that possible for you and me to listen to the full interview and learn about the amazing potential that ever cast has to change the way that you work and live is to optimize yourself that means slash ever cast Now back to today's interview.

Darin Olien 42:27

Yeah, hundred percent I mean, your your your your central nervous system is well over 90% water. Obviously your body's that's the last place it's going to take water from your body goes into a desert state and also shuts off your your body's need for water telling you about it because all it knows is you don't have water in your environment. So therefore, it has to keep you not thinking about that all the time so that you can function Right So, so your body gets used to this, no water state, and then it just sacrifices your mechanisms over time. And and then obviously the one of the obvious ones is just energy. But then we're so used to not drinking water and perceiving that as energy, we reach for all of these, these other things to give us that quick burst which, which are also very stressful on the body. So it further stresses our body in a sympathetic kind of way. And and you know, then we walk around, essentially, with our adrenals shot and fried over a period of time. And then you inevitably are creating more and more diseased states and acidic forming conditions in your body and environments that invite manifests and manifest. Disease bacteria virus chronic problems. So you want to think of your your, also your body as an environment. So you want to give space and cushion and flow and conduction. These are all aspects of water your cells and we're talking cellular hydration, the osmotic flow of water in and out of the state is also energy producing. And so that's, that's that's a very deep water hole or rabbit hole waterhole. Probably more effective. But but just by now, they they know that just the the electrons and photons that pass through and that and the the kind of the cells that the cells that are constantly flowing, the electrolytes and the water going back and forth and the membranes that's actually producing and it's this whole other fourth phase of water, which I'm not going to get into It's way too technical, but that they know that that is how the body produces energy on its own. And that's we're not even that's it that's way different than this normal metabolism of glycolysis. Using sugar, using the fats, using the proteins, all this stuff, we're literally talking on a cell cell, the cell basis that your body is producing energy that way. So imagine then, that your body is mostly water, and you're starving it of the nutrient that it needs the most, aside from breathing in oxygen and co2, and nitrogen and all of those things that you're getting through respiration. But imagine you're then every day going, I'm just gonna take the number one ingredient and just not consume it. It's the most insane thing ever. Like if there's one habit to implement, like you said, It's to increase your water. Okay, and start your day and some people listen, some people will, who were not used to it a little drink, and they'll actually feel quite nauseous because your body is in this, this desert state. And so it's not used to receiving water, especially through this repetitive reach for the glass of coffee kind of thing. And so when you start, you don't want to just slam for four liters of water, you want to, you know, maybe take a half a liter, and start that process upon waking, and then and then kind of in between meals, start to increase more water, and then over time, you'll crave water because your body will like Oh cool, this is a this is an environment where there is a water available. So now I can implement that throughout my body and improve my mechanisms of water. Use And your energy production and more of that osmotic cell exchange will increase on a cell to cell basis, and you have 70 trillion cells in your body. So imagine now you're giving yourselves the proper hydration. And so now you've increased your energy production that much more. And so I haven't, I mean, you might want to, I don't know if you're gonna ask, but you know, there's many different there's many ways to get the right kind of water. And that's an important aspect of it as well.

Zack Arnold 47:30

Yes, that was the the next quote unquote watering hole that I didn't necessarily want to go down. But my next question that was right at the tip of my brain waiting for you to finish was, so any liquid water should do that, right. And I know that that's Pandora's box with you. Like, oh my god. Again, this alone could be an eight part podcast, just talking about water. Definitely don't have the time to do that. But I least I want to paint the picture for why there needs to be a much deeper thought process about the wall. And this is actually the part of my journey where I am personally right now, just yesterday, I did my yearly physical, and I have a functional medical doctor, which going back to this idea of how did we get here? Being a functional medical doctor is the worst business model ever because you keep people healthy. Like, how does that work? I told them, I said, This is such a bad business model. I show up once a year. I feel fantastic. You and I chat about life, and then I see you in 12 months. So I, you know, obviously, this whole idea of it's a lot easier to keep people sick and give them medicine and market bad foods. Like, I think that kind of goes back to our earlier conversation of how did we get here. But one of the things that he said to me, he was looking at all my blood panels and I just turned 40 this year. He said you realize you're reverse aging because every time you come in here, your panels are getting better and better and better. But there's one area that I want you to look at this says that you're dehydrated. And I said I don't understand how that's possible. I maybe have one cup of coffee a day at the most one glass of wine On average, every two to three weeks, I really don't drink alcohol at all. And I drink no other substances. And I have a constant never ending bottle of water next to my keyboard. And he said yes, but according to the numbers, you have extra cellular hydration, but the water isn't being absorbed into your cells. And I was like, a

Unknown Speaker 49:19

What now?

Zack Arnold 49:20

So I was reading that as I was reading your chapter about water, and I thought, alright, I need to go a little bit deeper into this. So without going crazy. Let's talk a little bit more about how important water is as a fuel to us. But we really shouldn't just assume anything in a bottle is going to do

Darin Olien 49:37

exactly, yeah. And like I said, it's a huge topic. And it would be it could be a week, week long course, because anyone who's actually studied water realizes they know nothing about it, because it's not just h2o. There's many phases of it. There's it absorbs information, it sends information. It takes on energy, it takes on information And and, and it also does vary many biological processes in the body chemical processes in the body is affected on the molecular level and the quantum level, all of that stuff. But we're not going to get into all that. But I want to give a tiny bit of an overlay. But one of the things that people can do is stay away from plastic. That's neutering our society because the BPA is that they use in plastic production is a synthetic form of estrogen. The more malleable plastic is, the more estrogen mimicking molecules of the BPA they use. So do not consume water through plastic. And if you have to, if you do, make sure it's it's labeled as BPA free, especially as men were being castrated by by these things. This is not a conspiracy thing. This is just legitimate science that is coming. The plastic itself is petroleum based. I've also looked into for the last year I've looked into technology that breaks down plastic and puts it back into like usable fuel that you put in your car. Right so so that that's what we're it's it's petroleum, gasoline, paraffin, all of this stuff that make up plastic, we can put that back into our car. That is what your water is being carried around in. Please stay away from plastic, create your own water. How do you do this? Some simple ways to do this for 100 bucks on Amazon, you can buy a countertop. distiller, it distills water. What does it do? It vaporizes water goes into its third state vaporization. It re condenses. It doesn't allow for the particulates, the chemicals, the volatile compounds that I show up in tap water. Many many, many, many bad things in tap water, it's convenient and great. We've done a lot of stuff to allow us to turn the faucet on. I've been in many countries that that don't have that luxury, but there's some bad things in there. So, you want to get that out we need to deconstruct the water and then reconstruct it simple way countertop distillation unit and or reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis is a very small angstrom size membrane that these chemicals from these compounds cannot pass through. And therefore eliminating this, the total dissolved solids, creating it very close to that which is distilled. So these two technologies are very easy to use, but they're vacant of something incredibly necessary and that is the right kind of electrolytes. So you do not know Want to drink these just after you filtered them. It's great for teas and stuff because they help pull out key late, the teas and beverages and stuff like that that's fine. But in terms of consuming just as water, you want to add unrefined salt to it again so like my favorite is Himalaya pinch of Himalayan Crystal salt per glass and or half a teaspoon per gallon of Himalayan salt. Now you've got electrolytes and we are conductive 70 trillion batteries of cells we need the electrolytes to pass that water. Going back to your question, we need the electrolytes in the proper size. This doesn't mean Gatorade works. I can manipulate water and put minerals in there but those are the wrong size minerals. They do not allow for the osmotic flow between this in the cell membrane. They're too big. So we need what's naturally in naturally formed Himalayan salt. And some unrefined sea salt is great as well. And you add that to your water. Now you've electrolyzed your water, shake it up, filter it, add the thing, shake it up, give it some energy. And now put it in a glass bottle, get a great glass bottle that you've can carry around with you. If you're going to be gone all day, we'll get a big jug and bring it in with you Don't worry about what people say. This is your health. So that's an easy way to create the right kind of electrolytes, the clean pure water and then know that that water is most likely going to get into your cells. So that's an easy way to get into without getting. There's a bunch of energetics we can talk about. But that's but that's the easy basic way for you to get cellularly hydrated. Awesome. Well, I

Zack Arnold 54:57

think this is most likely the direction that I I'm going to head towards, but I want to play the devil's advocate for a second. And as somebody that has a master's in psychology, this will probably come as no surprise to you. Because one of the things I love about your approach is it's not just about the information, it's about how do I combine the information with an understanding of human psychology and how people approach things, how they build habits, not just from a logical perspective, but from an emotional perspective. My response, my initial response, and I'm assuming the initial response of many other people on the show is that all sounds absolutely fantastic. Ain't got time for that. I'm not going to be distilling my own water in the morning and dealing with this or that or the other thing. So what I want to think about is how can I solve the problem with money? And the first thought the easiest solution that I had not really come up with but the easiest solution to me when I first started thinking about Well, yeah, water is important to me. All right, well, I'm gonna buy a high quality refrigerator that has a great water filtration system. So what I want to do for you is read a Little, little excerpt from the product page of the filter that I'm using currently, this is the water and drinking. And I know you're just going to shake your head as I'm reading this, you're like, Oh my god, what has he done? But I want you to tell me everything that's wrong with what I read to you, and why I or other people shouldn't continue using this as an excuse for Oh, yeah, well, it's fine. It's filtered. So I'm gonna read this, and then just be careful of the whiplash of the head nodding. So the filtration process of the Samsung Aqua pureplus begins when water enters the filter from your refrigerators waterline. As water enters the filter, it flows through a carbon filled chamber inside the filter, and this carbon filled chamber captures impurities such as mold, rust, chlorine cysts, and other minerals found in your home's tap water. The resulting effect is crystal clear water made readily available to your residence and the peace of mind of reduced health risks. go to town.

Darin Olien 56:56

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, there is a truth to carb. filtration. And it's it's really important for those. So what they said was those things are fairly effective at getting out molds and cysts and some of the bigger particulates. So that's, that's a good thing, for sure. But what it's not telling you is the smaller particulates in the water. Right. So so like, for example, they did studies over a decade ago, and they realize that what's very small, is our modern day pharmaceutical drugs are now infiltrated our water systems. Right? So the very pharmaceutical drugs we've been taking and peeing out, and flushing down the toilet for decades, is now all over and our water systems and these filters are named closely touching them, not to mention the volatile compounds that are reacting from the chlorine that we're sending out which they have to send chlorine out. It's the only way the only effective way That you can disinfect water on a massive scale. Because you don't know what down the line it has to be strong enough so that it can when it reaches somebody that there's enough chlorine to kill said bacterias and viruses in someone's water system. But the problem is that there's volatility and reactions that are going on that people don't even know about. And and we're consuming those those experiments. So the carbon and all of that stuff is only getting out what it said it's getting out. But there's, there's an infinite amount of chemical compounds and reactions and pharmaceutical drugs that that are not being addressed. So the total dissolved solids which is called TDs, is still extremely high. And if you were to test I've tested hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of of water systems, not only in the United States but around the world. And unless you get that total dissolve solid down to zero to five parts per million, you are dealing with compounds that you do not want to gamble with. And so if I were to test your filtered water, I guarantee you that, based on my experience, you will be at least 200 to 300 parts per million of unknown particulates in that water. So, again, you've got out some of the bigger ones. So you have to go to that next phase, the carbons great and then if you go reverse osmosis, or distilled now you're now you're at that level. That's the only way at this point unless you have your own spring, and you're doing it your way or you're ordering glass bottles from Mountain spring water and it's all been tested. That's the only way you can do it.

Zack Arnold 59:51

So then I should probably head out in my backyard in urban Los Angeles and just make sure I don't have a spring back there. First of all, that should be my First step

Darin Olien 1:00:00

now but even that you're because of the where you live the runoff of our modern day world and the pollution, you're not going to have a spring that's clean, it's not going to be an aquifer underneath that ground. Because we have contaminated too much of it. I'm saying a spring like I've seen a couple springs in my life that I would trust. And those are in, you know, in the reaches of New Zealand and also in the, in the jungles of Brazil. So other than that, um, no one has a very few people have access to a clean spring.

Zack Arnold 1:00:33

Yeah, I don't think I'd be drinking from a spring in my backyard, with the ground in Los Angeles anytime soon. That's for sure. So if knowing that I'm drinking half a gallon or more a day of water coming from that filtration system, knowing the basics of where that water is coming from how it's getting to me in the filter that is going through does it makes sense to you why my doctor would say that according to my bloodwork, I'm dehydrated 100% so then Let's say that I just said to myself, I don't want to have an extra contraption in my kitchen, I don't want to have to put the distiller there or take the time every single day to run it for 510 15 minutes. Are there either other filtration systems where I would spend a significant amount more money or places where I can just buy the water and get it where I can eliminate the the issue of time and habitually having to create my own high quality water source?

Darin Olien 1:01:29

Well, yeah, and under under the counter ro system with multiple stage filters, I mean, you can get that installed by any plumber, no problem. And these things are quite cheap. They're a few hundred bucks. And once that set up, you have a spout. It's coming out boom, it's on demand all time out a little pinch of salt, keep the salt right next to it. And you're good. You don't have to worry about it. For for the distiller when I lost my house in the past. Fire, I bought a distiller when I was staying in other places, all you do is it's on your countertop, the night before you just fill it up, turn it on, go to sleep next morning, get a gallon of pure water in the morning. So it takes what as long as it takes to fill up a gallon of water. So these things are miniscule in their time constraint, like I said, if you want to, you know, take the time and order glass bottles, mountain spring waters good. Essential bottled water has a BPA free plastic but again, it's plastic. So you know, we have to eliminate the use of plastic period, but just be your own water source. These things are these are easy, easy solutions.

Zack Arnold 1:02:47

So assuming then that I figure out all the machinations of making sure that I'm getting a clean water source, it doesn't have all these total dissolve, you know, dissolve particles and all these things in them and I'm getting the the big stuff out And I add a little bit of sea salt and I know I have the water that my body truly craves for cellular function. How much am I actually supposed to be drinking per day because my god, you go on the internet, and you put how much water to drink per day in Google and your head will explode.

Darin Olien 1:03:13

Yeah, you know, you you want to target you'll get a sense of it for yourself, but half an ounce per pound of body weight, and half an ounce per pound of body weight is a great target. And then I'm probably on average, consume about three and a half liters, you know, 200 pound male, three and a half liters, four liters a day,

Zack Arnold 1:03:35

which give or take is about what three quarters of a gallon, right so it's not even a gallon of water, but it's more than a couple of cups.

Darin Olien 1:03:41

No, I mean, when you're Yeah, when you're when you're at four liters. you're you're you're for sure. a gallon of water.

Zack Arnold 1:03:47

Yeah. So and like I said, I'm doing at least half a gallon a day but I'm clearly doing half a gallon a day with a lot of the wrong things that are prohibiting me from absorbing the energy of the water. So yeah, this is this is literally my to do As soon as we get off the show, I gotta fix my water system,

Darin Olien 1:04:03

but it's powerful and it's one of the most you know, it's one of the sides from breathing and doing conscious breathing. It's, it's, it's one of the greatest foundational principles you can implement and I have very significant results in your life. So that's, that's incredibly important. And you know, one habit that I say to people just start your day with a with a liter of water, before you drink anything else upon waking, create your water, move up, get up to a liter of gallon and then then your body will really start to, to crave and then and then before your next meal by about a half an hour, drink some more. And then between another meal, drink some more hexane, oh, you're three liters in and your whole life has changed.

Zack Arnold 1:04:49

So we've really gone down and I love to use this term going down the waterhole, right. I know it was a mistake, but I think it's a funny, funny idiom that you came up with. And I had alluded to this idea that I wanted to get into food as well. And I don't think we're going to even be able to scratch the surface of all the things that I would love to talk about as far as food going into superfoods versus supplements versus organic, non organic, fresh, like there's so much stuff that you cover in your book that I think is absolutely vital, required reading for people that want to be able to decipher all of the marketing messages and all the misinformation. I think you're a fantastic source for somebody that wants to learn more about that stuff not going to be able to cover today. However, if we're going back to this, this person that's listening, that saying I just I want to get started. And I now understand the importance of hydrating myself with the right kinds of fuel, meaning water with whether it's just having more energy, having more cognitive ability, having more focus, that's the place to start. But knowing that died is probably kind of a mess and somebody is spending a lot of late night edit sessions or creative sessions with pizza with red Knowing that there they basically have an accelerated version of the standard American diet or Can somebody just start like what what would what would be step one to start turning this around without feeling overwhelmed,

Darin Olien 1:06:12

I would just take one meal, choose one meal that you can focus your meal on plants and start exploring healthy ways and ways that our taste good for you. And and eliminate meat fish dairy, and expose yourself to new new different plant foods and, and that can be soups soups are good and like specially in this, these winter months. medley of of that. It can be some tubers, some great sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, I'm not a carb phobic person. And they're also finding that with with peer reviewed research for actually back to 100 years that insulin resistance is, is coming by way even with diet VDS is coming by way of saturated fat. So So carbs have gotten a really bad rap. They're reversing diabetes with with carbohydrate diets. So that's a whole nother thing which I probably shouldn't even brought up because it's such a big topic but and find ways to create a nice big salad with nuts and colors and nice clean dressings and stuff like that and, and just just try to and if that's even a stretch then then just you know keep your meat or your whatever your dairy just to a bare minimum and include more more plants involved in there's plenty of recipes out there and I have plenty on my website and super life calm so that you know just listen if you if you start with the water, and if you start with one meal where you're focused on plants and and and then that's It's a great, great place and then also you can play with the eating windows right so there of course the research on on intermittent fasting and you're eating Windows is extremely important as well. And and these are also old principles I've gotten to explore some of the people in the Blue Zones who the longevity zones around the world and Sardinia, and it's really calorie restriction that is, in turn turns on our energy systems and and just gives more vitality rather than eating these kind of American huge plates of things all the time. So, so make making sure that also people who work they usually, you know, they'll reach without drinking the water, they'll reach for the coffees and all of that stuff, and then they'll kind of not eat very nutrient dense foods during the day and then they'll come home and then slam so much food and at dinner time. And that's it. your metabolism is at its slowest. So, just keep in mind from a traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic system, the Indian Ayurvedic system these are the two oldest ancient healing systems in the world that they both agree that our metabolism the time to eat the most is breakfast and lunch. And then if you if you front load yourself even if you you having your first meal at lunch, no big deal but try to eat good quality food at that time so that you don't feel the body's kind of behind and then you've slamming in all of this overeating at night, which can really disrupt your your circadian rhythms and your ability to sleep and and and mess up your digestive system. Well,

Zack Arnold 1:09:50

like I said, I want to be very respectful of your time but the one thing that I want to add on to that is if somebody is looking for just the the brain dead easiest way to get started once again, I know you're not gonna mark yourself but if somebody asked me that question, I point him in the direction of Shakeology not because I'm going to get rich off of any kind of commissions or whatever not a salesman for but just because this stuff works and then the the new area that I would point them in the direction of immediately if they're looking for I hate using the term quick fix but kind of the the easiest solution to have a very palatable, but also very powerful superfood. Your verrucas like I said, are ridiculous. So and you know, a super, super quick pitch. Can you walk us through the tremendous benefit of this new nut that you've discovered?

Darin Olien 1:10:36

Yeah, yeah. I mean, first off, yes, dude. Shakeology to get the nutrient density from some of the greatest botanicals around the world. adaptogens, helping with stress, prebiotics, probiotics, systemic enzymes, and then a huge amount of plant compounds. That's just such a no brainer to include into your day because we've done the work for you. So that's, that's an easy thing for people to implement. I mean, my gosh has spent years putting that thing together, and really decades traveling around the world. So and then the nuts. I mean, this is this is imagine that eating a nut that's giving you more nutrients than any nut that we've recorded to this day. That's blowing away every single nut that's been tested on every category. So we have we're lowering fats or lowering calories. We have more antioxidants than any none. Hugely high in micronutrients, magnesium, potassium, copper, phosphorus, calcium, and then a third more fiber than any nut, which fiber we're all lacking. And then it tastes so freakin good. It tastes like a peanut on steroids. without all the athletes out. toxins. And then the other side of it that's very important to us. And hopefully to you and your listeners is like, okay, so you get this delicious tasting crunchy nut with all these nutrients that's benefiting your body. And at the same time, we're helping these indigenous people have a wild food This is collected throughout the Sahaba of Brazil. And it's collected in the wild by the indigenous people of the area. And for every five pounds we sell, we plant a bottos ada tree that produces these nuts in the wild to protect this area that's being destroyed faster than any landmass on the planet due to this very unsustainable animal agriculture. So so this is a pillar in my career and my life right now that it means the most to me, because we're able to do something really good while giving people This incredible experience and nutrient dense not so. So this is this is the win win win win win good for the people of the sahtu good for the Serato itself, good for the people that are consuming it. And, and everybody wins on that whole journey. And most

Zack Arnold 1:13:21

importantly, the person that wins the most is the one that eats it. Because again, it's just so good. And all the things that you mentioned are all fantastic if it tasted like none of it would matter. And that's the problem with so many superfoods and formulas and green powders and all this stuff. Like I know what's good for me, but it's like licking the bottom of a shoe. So no, thank you. But verrucas like if I had a choice between a peanut and a bruker not that's now my choice. And I used to use almonds but almonds of first of all for people that don't know Yes, they're healthy quote unquote. But if you eat them every day on a regular basis, they can have a lot of negative health effects. Number two, they're super high in calories and number three Unless you get in like super flavored with all the good stuff, they're not that good. So they get really boring and brew goes have none of those problems.

Darin Olien 1:14:08

And all almonds are horrible for the environment, too, because they're they're transplanted and they destroy bee populations because of bees need to be transported to pollinate them. And they're, they're still there, they're used the same amount of water that all of La uses that we all drink every year. The almond industry uses every year for the almonds, so they just suck a huge amount of water in California. And obviously water is a precious commodity here so there's no amount of you know you Everyone here has worked hard for their money. And so when you get to have a pleomorphic good effect with the with the use of your money by by choosing to buy from a company that cares about the environment cares about the people collecting it and cares about you, getting you an incredible nut from a third world Country, then then those are the types of scenarios we want to create so that people can benefit from this high nutrient dense not. And also know that those dollars that they're spending and saying, Yes, we want to buy this that we are using that money to further regenerate the planet in an area that that desperately needs it.

Zack Arnold 1:15:23

Well, one of my missions that I'm going to take it upon myself is I'm going to try and replace every bowl sitting next to a keyboard that's filled with m&ms and fill it with burgers, instead. It's a tall order, it's not going to be easy. Trust me, I've seen many a keyboard and many bold m&ms, but we're gonna see what I can do. That's going to be one on one of my new missions here because man, these things are so good. So we haven't even gotten into words like organic and fresh and natural, like so many other things we could cover. I want to be respectful of your time, but I'm hoping that you enjoy this enough that at some point, I can invite you back for a part two because boy do we have a lot more that we could talk about. That would be helpful to people all over. So I'm hoping that at some point, we can do a part two, but in the meantime, let everybody know where they can find you where they can find your book where they can find verrucas all of the above how can how can we hook them up?

Darin Olien 1:16:14

Yeah, so verrucas.com ba r u k 's for rucas.com. And then super life living on all my Instagrams, and Facebook's and then super life calm.

Zack Arnold 1:16:29

Awesome. Well, I cannot tell you what a pleasure it has been to finally get this conversation on the record. I'm looking forward to making Part Two or reality sometime soon when your schedule allows. But once again, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your time and your expertise today. So thank you.

Darin Olien 1:16:44

Yeah, man, I appreciate it. It was fun.

Zack Arnold 1:16:49

Thank you for listening to this episode of The optimize yourself podcast to access the show notes for this and all previous episodes, as well as to subscribe so you don't miss future interviews just like this one. Please visit optimize yourself. That means slash podcast. And a special thanks to our sponsors ever cast and arrow driven for making today's interview possible to learn more about how to collaborate remotely without missing a frame, and to get your real time demo of ever cast in action, visit optimizer chef.me slash ever cast. And to learn more about Ergo driven and my favorite product for standing workstations, the total mat stick around there coming up next, if today's interview inspires you to get up and start moving again, but you have spent so many years stuck in your desk chair and you are so out of shape that you're not even sure where to start. Well then you're in luck, because I have over 50 pages of tips, tricks, strategies, and my favorite tools to share with you and my ultimate guide to building a more active workstation. This Ultimate Guide is a collection of over a decade of my own research and experimentation that summarizes how I stay active, focused and energetic all day long. Despite living In front of a computer for the past 20 years. This includes my favorite recommendations for standing desks, ergonomic desk chairs and mice, tools and equipment that I keep within arm's reach all day long to alleviate and eliminate wrist, forearm, shoulder, neck and lower back pains. Seriously, this is a manifesto on how to not let your desk chair slowly kill you. To download your free Ultimate Guide, visit optimize yourself.me slash workstation Ultimate Guide. Thank you for listening, stay safe, healthy and sane. And be well.

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