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Kreatures Of Habit Podcast
Rewiring the Brain After Trauma w/ Steve White | Kreatures of Habit
00:55:52
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- [00:00]
Host
You know, the beauty of discipline, and I've said this before, is that it's free, it does not cost any money. Right. Very few people are willing to grab
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Steve
a hold of it.
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Host
Once you understand that it's attainable, that you can do it, you can apply it to everything in your life.
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Steve
You got to be all in. And I've had guys say, well, that's not necessarily true. Well, it has been for me. That's what I know is that getting better is not an incremental thing. All in is a change of form. It's like water at 195 is hot, it's very hot. Water at 210 is hotter, but it's still water at 212. It changes form. It's different. All in is 212. And once you start to realize that's the way getting better is, is a full commitment.
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Host
It doesn't matter how far down the road you are, you can always choose a different path.
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Steve
You got to focus it on your path. Can you really see that image? If you can see it and you can feel it, it's in your path. An entrepreneur straight out of New York City. Michael Chernow. What's cracking?
- [01:10]
Host
So we were just talking before the camera started rolling. I want you to kind of regurgitate that.
- [01:16]
Steve
Well, I was just saying about how success in anything really comes down to having a simple process. You got to be able to get first down. So everyone, I'm an old football player, so I always use that analogy. But everybody tries to have this like, I'm going to lose £100 and this, this goal. I don't even believe in goals. I believe in waypoints. You got to have spots that you can look and say, okay, I came from down there and I'm going up there. And sometimes you got to go down to go up. But you have a path that you're on. And the worst thing that causes failure and it actually ruins neuroplasticity is cynicism. That's the biggest thing that happens. You have a seven year old, I can say, okay, now see that chair over there? That's a spaceship. And a seven year old starts seeing a spaceship, they start picturing what they could do in the spaceship and they start figuring it out. Take a 70 year old and say, that's a spaceship, maybe that's a chair. They can't imagine, they can't go there. And imagination is the number one thing that, that you have to, have to be able to, to really change, if you will. You have to be able to see, and you have to be able to think. And cynicism is what stops us from doing that. And, and frankly, that's not just me. That's research that proves that if, if I say to you, I use this analogy all the time, but if I said to you right now, hey, there's the gas, the natural gas system just broke. We got to go over there right now and fix it. Neither one of us know anything about it, but because of that purpose and that urgency, we're going to go over there and we're going to go at it as fast, as hard as we can, and we're going to be like, okay, figure this out. What about that? What about the electric connection, whatever it is, we'll start figuring it out, right? And that's neuroplasticity. You're learning. Even you could be. I'm 65. I'm learning as I'm going right there. Because there's a purpose and there's a reason. If, if there's not, you have a tendency to go, I don't know anything about that. I, I've flunked that. And when I was a kid, anything to do with electrical systems or, you know, whatever it is, you. You stop yourself from growing. And so to change, you have to start with, with allowing yourself to look at things brand new, fresh. It's like Bruce Lee says, you know, the glass can't be half full, you know, because you can't. Then you can only learn half. You always have to empty your glasses and start over and learn every day when you're retraining what you're doing. So I think that's what we're talking about.
- [03:39]
Host
Steve, you have a. A really crazy and interesting story, and I would love to just kind of kick off there. Just give it to us, man.
- [03:52]
Steve
Well, you know, my story is a disaster. Say, interesting, but it really was a disaster. I. I got my first concussion when I was 17. Didn't really understand the impact of it. I was knocked out for like 12 hours in a game, Went ahead and played college football, kept getting concussions, had things, issues starting to happen. My face would be paralyzed. There's certain things that happen. They'd say, well, that's Bell's palsy, whatever. Then later it started kind of coming together. But the first thing that happens to you when you're, when you have concussions or even a lot of illnesses is the emotional problems. And it was hard for me. It took me my whole life to realize that that was part of. I want to say the reasons, not the excuses. Because one of the things to heal is you have to stop and say, okay, my life's problems, what's going on is my fault. You got to start there and you got to take. You got to own it. Yes, I had concussions. Yes, I have lupus. Yes, I have aps. But. But still, the decisions, the things that I did are my fault. And so, yeah, I started with concussions. I always could have a lot of success in a hurry. I always had good talent. But it cleared till my second year in the cfl, where I finally started to really fall apart. And then my life, the rest of my life again. Successes and failures. Success and failures. Mostly because you can't finish you. You can't emotionally stay tied to anything. You ruin relationships. You know, before I had concussions, I never drank in my life. And after I had my concussions, I drank like a fish. I was the guy that would drink all night and show up at practice, at the 8:00am practice and. And take it on. So you have these things that start to happen, and you can sit there and blame them all, but you really got to take it into yourself. So I got to a point, I don't know, it's probably when I was about 40, 45, where I started having seizures and blackouts, and there were some crazy ones. And again from alcohol or from the brain stuff? Brain stuff, sure. Blacked out a few times in alcohol, too. But I, you know, even then I still had that kind of, just rub dirt on it, you'll be all right. So I had one time where I was passed out in a fast lane of a freeway, sitting in my car, and the cop came up. Somehow he knew I hadn't been drinking, I hadn't been on drugs, and said, you need to take this guy to the hospital. But I didn't go. I. I was like, I don't know, I just need some sleep. So I kind of went through that and then finally started getting to the point where I couldn't really function. I'd have seizures or I like to say events, because mine were all over the place. Some would be real true seizures, some would just be lockups. I always jokingly say I had Parkinson's for a year because the guy diagnosed me with Parkinson's, and then it took a year for. The guy from Stanford said, dude, you don't have Parkinson's. Does he know your past? Does he know what you've been through? But, yeah, life started falling apart. I had some kind of gut checks. I had a Couple friends. I had one friend that committed suicide with me on the phone. And you know, and he was like, I'm out. I got no, I got nothing. I'm doing. All I've done is hurt people in my life. This world's better without me. I'm out. And that was the last thing he said to me. And I got a tattoo I wear for him because I felt like that was something I needed to, to go after for him. But there was a point where the function just got to where I, I could do nothing. I couldn't just live off of talent or opportunity anymore and basically gave up. I, I actually went home to where I live now to die. I thought it's over. The, the doctors had said they couldn't give me any more antidepressants. They couldn't give me any more anti seizure medicine. I was on as much as I was on. My, my cognitive scores had just dropped, drop, drop clear down to MOCA score of 16, which is almost non verbal. I just wasn't functioning. I still don't talk that great. I can still have bad days, but a lot better than I did then. And I hit this point where it was like, okay, I either go cry in the corner or I fight. And it took one person. And something I think is very, very important is to have mentors, have, have people around you. I don't, you know, I always like to say healthcare or health itself is, is a team event, not an individual event. And once you start to learn that, and that's what started to teach me. It was one guy, guy named Carl Cadwell who I went to, he saw me at the time, I was like £290, I could barely bend over. I, I couldn't really do anything. And he said, he looked at me and he, he said, what's going on? And I told him, what's going on? And he said, well, we gotta fight this. And I swear it's the first time. I was like, yeah, we got to fight this, don't we? And, and so I started from scratch. I was like, okay, I got four pairs of pants, five shirts, got a little trailer. I, I, at the time, I had trouble remembering names of anything. You know, you'll hear people have cognitive problems where everything's like, grab that thing for me. You know, that whatchamacallit, nothing would, would come to you. So I started putting tags down, phone, you know, coffee cup, whatever, and had my, my little basic things. And I started fighting. And fighting for me was a lot of research. I always loved Research. That's something I really care a lot about. So I started reading. I started trying to find anybody in the world that could give me advice. I got pretty good at banging on doors and. Which was surprising. A lot of the experts would answer when you email them or you talk to them. And I ran in all these experts, and it was like, guy could be transcranial photobiomodulation. It's the answer. And hyperbaric chamber. It's the answer. And what I started to realize is none of them were the answer. They were. But stacking them was doing everything. It wasn't about the two hours of, of, of therapy a day that got me better. It was the other 22. It's like taking on and, and building this. And I start to realize I had to replace my addictions. I was addicted to alcohol. I drank like a. Like I said, a fish. But I had to. To replace them with discipline. And that's what I became addicted to, is discipline. It's like. And it wasn't about the emotion. It's one thing I tell people all the time, if you think you're going to get better by inspiration, you're going to fail. It doesn't work that way. You're going to have days where you're not inspired. But you got to show up. You just got to continue to show up when you're not inspired, when you don't feel it. And then my second one is you have to relentlessly pursue it. So no matter what, you commit to that. And it all comes from which I even have on my hat. Hold the keep. You got to know why. Why am I on this earth? Why am I still here? And. And that was a tough one for me. And I started to look for it, though, and it would be little bitty things. I always use the example of, I was at Walmart and a lady dropped her stuff at the door, and I held the door open and I got the stuff for her, and I walked out the car. I was like, nobody else would have done that today. Boom. I was unearthed for a reason today. So it's stupid little things like that. But I started tracking them, writing them down, saying, okay, why was I here today? And then I started looking for, why will I be here today? And what can I do to make a difference? And so I found, and I truly believe this, and actually we're doing an IRB right now with University of California San Diego to prove that caring is the healthiest thing you can do if you want to start getting better, you've got to figure out what's your keep, why are you on this earth. And that's comes from a movie I saw when I was a kid where they're, you know, they got the castle and they got the keep and they're like, hold the keep. So that's where I got it from. But yeah, I gotta know what your keep is. Why am I gonna do this? Why am I gonna fight? Because if you're trying to lose £100 or whatever it is, and now it's weekend and there's rocky road, ice cream or whatever, and you go, I might as well have that or why am I not having that? What is my keep? So I started that kind of process. So long story short of my disastrous life was I could sit and cry about it, or I can do something and I can't change the past, but I can change the future. And so it started to be like the future is today and it's every day, one day at a time. And you start that fight. And I started what I call the Bray 100, which was 100 days of just that kind of a discipline. And frankly the last part of a Bray 100 is welcome to the beginning because you haven't won. There is no win. As name. My company is the Bray. Bray is Scottish for side of a hill. Because it's all there is a side of a hill. You're climbing or you're dropping, you don't get to a plateau and go, I made it cool, it's over. You got to keep fighting, right? And people, what started happening is I started getting better. I had 70 some percent of cognitive improvement on the test that you can't cheat on. There's a straight out computer test. But what I found is that there was no juju juice. Something that that was going to save me is the fight. And so people start coming to us. I now have a place is 250,000 square feet. We have thousands of people come through a week and we have hundreds of people that have used my system. But it was just about sharing what God gave me, which was a new start and saying I made this commitment, which was whatever, whoever's in my path, I want to help. Be careful what you say because also a lot of people were in my path. But it was beautiful. And what we found is that they would say, okay, what fixes me? You. You fix you. You got to become the quarterback of your own life. You can't put it on your doctor. Doctor's great. You know, the doctor is a great mentor. A great leader, a great consultant. But at the same time, you have to take control of your life. And that's what really started to change, is that when you say, okay, I'm responsible for my own life, my own health, what am I going to do about it? And we even created a really cool software called Home Teams that helps do this. But you start to, you start to take control of that and switch. And what we start seeing is Parkinson's patients who are late stage three and then six months later, they're early stage two. Did we fix them? No. They're fighting. And I still don't have like some cure or some. I'm, you know, I always say my expertise is not being an expert because I realize that it is. I mean, to a certain degree I got to go find any expert. And if that expert, there's a better expert, then I'm going to find that one. I'm going to bring all the information we possibly can to help people fight. And that was kind of the turning point of, of my life in a lot of ways is to make that move to fight versus sit in the corner and cry.
- [15:20]
Host
When was that? When did that happen?
- [15:22]
Steve
Started, I think about seven years ago. And you know, again, I was pretty much done. It's a story, it's in my book about the fact that I was in the mountains and I had a seizure and I was out for like 10, 12 hours. I mean, not out cold. I don't remember 10, 12 hours. I don't know if I was out cold or what. I know I was laying beside a river. A couple, couple hikers told me that my service dog, which is I owe my life to in many ways, wouldn't let them near me. And I was just laying by the river. They thought I was drunk. I was just laying there. But I walked out of those mountains holding onto my dog's tail is a long story. And I thought, I can't do this anymore. I can't just sit and cry about it. And that's all I was doing, just crying about, oh, poor me. I had to do something, I had to fight. And that was the turning point. That was about seven years ago.
- [16:16]
Host
Wow. Interrupting this episode to share with you that Creatures of Habit finally launched our protein bar. It's called the Daily Bar. It's made with 20 grams of plant based protein, 3 grams of creatine. Yes, you heard that right. It also has 3 grams of creatine. It is incredibly tasty and clean as a whistle. All clean ingredients. Take this opportunity. Hop over to creaturesofhabit.com. that's creaturesofhabit.com with a K and use code K O H P O D20 at checkout for 20% off your first order back to the pod. So what does your life look like now?
- [16:59]
Steve
Beautiful. And a fight. I, you know, I still have seizures very rarely. I've gotten, you know, I went from 30 some percent body fat and 285, 90 pounds to I get down to about 202 when I'm really going at it, and 4% body fat. And I went from being able to run about a few hundred yards, I still laugh when I go by it every day almost to running 10, 20 miles a day and doing a 350 mile run, doing a new one this year. But I watched the difference of that change. So yeah, that was the beginning of it.
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Host
So you said, how old are you?
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Steve
Six? I'll be 65 in a couple weeks.
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Host
So you really started this journey at 58?
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Steve
Yeah.
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Host
That is unbelievable, man. That's incredible. That I think in itself is, you know, I've been sober now for 21 years and my story is similar in ways because I had to make that decision to just stop and fight. Right. And you know, the hard part with alcoholism and drug addiction is most of the people that are struggling with it don't actually believe that there is a way to fight. They actually think their addiction is their, is their medicine to fight all the other things that happened in their life.
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Steve
I did. I did.
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Host
And so when you try to explain to someone who's battling addiction, you know, first you got to surrender, right? You got to throw in the towel. You just got to throw in the towel. You got to put the, you got to put the sword down, the shield down and surrender and then start really fighting. Yeah, it's hard, you know, and, and, but, but you are, and I am a living example of people. I started my fight at 24, you started your fight at 58. And so I've said so many times, you know, it doesn't matter how far down the road you are, you can always choose a different path.
- [19:19]
Steve
And it's, yeah, it's never too late. It really never too late. I have, I have, I call them clients. My, my, I have now medical providers and we have behavioral health and physical therapy and stuff. But they're, to me, they're clients. I'm not a doctor and I tell my clients all the time that you know about the fight. But I, I get amazed of these people who are 75, 80 have Parkinson's and all of a sudden decide to fight. But I. The thing that I can always tell, and you probably can too, I always tell whether they're going to win or not. And what it is is all in. You got to be all in. And I've had guys say, well, that's not necessarily true. Well, it has been for me. That's what I know is that getting better is not an incremental thing. It's not. It's. Yes, 27 is better than 24. You can sit there and play this game and you'll. Again, it's the side of a hill. You're going up and down. All in is, is a, a change of form. It's like water. Water at 195 is hot. It's very hot. Water at 210 is hotter, but it's still water at 212. It changes form. It's different. It all in is 212. And once you start to realize that's the way getting better is, is a flow full commitment. I see people even, even like some of the terminal patients we've had that fight and thrive, just thrive. Like they're supposed to live a few days and they live four years and live. They're all in. And that's the one thing I have learned. And I. And again, I've had people say, well, Steve, that's not always true. Maybe it's not. I'm not an expert, but I do know this is that for us, I can always tell whether they're going to be able to really go there when they're all in. And whether you're 24 or you're 58, you make that, you make that move and you watch and start to see the change. But again, it can't be motivation. It can't be motivation. That sounds really weird. It's like it's the commitment of hold the keep. You got to have your reason, your purpose. And when you have that and you get up every day and you tell yourself, okay, why am I here? And then you're remembering why. You start seeing the people that I might be able to help, the people who maybe still love me. I mean, when I, when I started, I didn't think there was anybody did I really didn't. And probably rightfully so. But you, you start to say, but there's that people I can care for. And you, you stated that all in. And then like I said, you got to show up, show up every day and just keep going at it.
- [21:57]
Host
I, you said something earlier and, and it's the one word that I do believe is a requirement for anything that one would call great. But it is discipline. And discipline for me. I mean, I've got it tattooed on my hand. You know, discipline for me is. You know, the beauty of discipline, and I've said this before, is that it's free. It does not cost any money.
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Steve
Right?
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Host
Right. And it's. And it's. And it's up for grabs, and
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Steve
very
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Host
few people are willing to grab a hold of it. But the coolest thing about discipline, from my experience, is that once you understand that it's attainable, that you can do it, you can apply it to everything in your life. Everything. And I know right now, I'm 45 right now, if for some weird, bizarre reason, I said, you know what? I just want to be a surgeon. I want to be a surgeon. I know that it would require undergrad because I didn't finish college. It would require four years of medical school. It would require four years of residency and probably two years of something else. So what is that? 15, 17 years? So at 50, at 60 years old, I could be operating on people.
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Steve
Right.
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Host
It's just that simple.
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Steve
Right.
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Host
Most people would say, 45 years old, you want to be a surgeon? No way. But from my experience in life for the last 21 years, I know, right. 100% totally possible in my. And, you know, if I said I want to play in the NBA, I know my limits. Right. I'm 5 foot 8 and 45 years old. That. That is most likely. Actually 100. Impossible would not happen. But discipline is.
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Steve
Is.
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Host
Is. Is a word that people kind of shudder at. Right? Right.
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Steve
And you got to focus it. So, like, what you just said there is very interesting. You got to focus it on your path. Your path is not the NBA. That's different. You. If you really. That's why I was talking about imagination. It's like imagination people think is fake. Imagination is seeing images. Can you really see that image? And you're. You go NBA. And you're like, no, I can't see it. Yeah. Because it's not in your path. When you sit there and really get down to. When you talk about your hold, your keep. Talk about what you want to do with your life and you and you and you. If you can see it and you can feel it, it's in your path. I mean, that's. That's the interesting thing. I. I go back to when I was an athlete. I used to be able to jump really well as a basketball player, too. And I used to be able to say, think of a dunk. I'm going to 360, and I'm going to throw it off the backboard. I'm going to catch it, and I'll ram this thing home. If I could see it, I could do it. It's like, I never had one I couldn't do if I saw it. And there's times where I'd think of one like that. And I go like, yeah, can't do it. And guess what? I wouldn't be able to do it because I couldn't imagine it. If you take that same kind of philosophy into getting. Well, I. I play games with people. I always tell people, you got to get in your cartoon head, and you have to really see this beautiful story and imagine it. And when you start to do that, it's. It's called expectation. So like, like, for instance, I'll give you an example. It's like if I put somebody in a hyperbaric chamber, if I say, okay, get in the hyperbaric chamber, this is going to make you better. I put them in there. It's going to help. But if I go, okay, you're gonna get the hyperbaric chamber, and it's gonna force all this oxygen into your system, and we're gonna get more oxygen in your brain. And I start explaining what's gonna happen in the hyperbaric chamber. And then by week two, I say, why are you getting the hyperbaric chamber? And they start describing to me what's gonna happen when they get in the hyperbaric chamber, how it's gonna help them. They get so much better, so much faster because they're expecting it to work. They start to understand why it's happening. The doctor says, here's a drug. Take this. This is gonna help. Does it? And is it the. The weakness of the drug? I don't know. But I'm just saying it really comes to expecting to get better. So once you can get people to understand that again. I see people all the time. You go through. I just went through. So part of my injury when I was 17 is I really. The concussion was horrendous and I had. I have spinal injury. And so when I got done with my 300 mile, 350 mile thing, I couldn't lift this arm anymore, and I couldn't do anything with this arm. And went to see the neurosurgeon. He's like, dude, it is really bad, your neck. We're going to put in like four new discs and all this stuff like that, and it's probably not going to work. And it went through this whole thing and I started thinking, okay, can I see myself getting better? Well, well, I did. And I saw the path of what I was going to do. And this is my last little thing. This last two months. At two months, he said if I could get to 60, he had this, this scale. If I can get to 60%, then I'm. He won't have to do the other surgery, which was to put the bolts in and do all that. At two months, I was at 147%. And why? Because I knew I could get there. And I took our software, which really helps you learn a lot about it. But I went through all this process and I was like, there's no reason why I can't. He keeps saying I can't. He'd say, Steve, you're 64 years old. You know, this is what's going to be like. And I'd say, and I literally said to him, I said, what if I was a 30 year old Olympian? He'd say, well, then you could needs to tell me all this stuff. Okay, okay, consider me a 30 year old Olympian, because that's what I see in my head, you know, and anyway, the process was about believing and seeing it and understanding the expectation. Not just placebo, but expecting. And that's a big part of getting better.
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Host
You know, I think there's a lot of, like when people hear the word manifest, Right?
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Steve
Yeah.
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Host
You know, I'm going to manifest this. And there's all this mystical.
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Steve
Yeah.
- [28:20]
Host
Stuff about manifestation. And you know, the truth is, everything we have in our life is manifested. Yeah, everything we have, right? You meet the woman, you fall in love, you say, one day, you know, I'm gonna marry that woman. You marry her, right. You know, you, you, you, you have an idea. You're like, you know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to make this into a business, right? And you, you, you start asking questions, you start asking for help, you start putting some numbers down, you start thinking about the, you know, you start designing and, and putting some word, you know, pen to paper on a business plan. And you tell a friend or two and you get introduced to somebody and that person then becomes your first, you know, potential employee. And that's all manifest, man. That's all manifest. You know, it doesn't have to mean that you're sitting in a, you know, serene room with sage burning.
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Steve
And it's not this esoteric kind of just. Same with just the word positive people think, oh, positive is kind of this thing out there, you know, because it has no foundation in their mind. And manifesting for most people has no foundation. But you think about it this way, what do you do the most in life? And the answer, usually if you really think about it, people will say breathing they I through a day. I probably breathe the most thinking. You think like some like between 12,000 and like 40,000 times a, a day. I mean the thoughts that go through your head. What if all 40,000 start with a positive thought? Try it. It's freaking hard. It's really hard. And you won't be able to do, do it all the way. But you get better at it. You start thinking every thought is going to be positive. And that's what you're saying about manifesting structure. Like we're talking about discipline now. It becomes a discipline. I like to say with, with our program, I like to say we're going to think on purpose. And by thinking on purpose, everything that I'm trying to think, I'm going to think with on purpose. And then from that I start developing purpose, right? But I'm going to think on purpose. It's like if I'm going to do something, it's on purpose. It's not just because it came at me. Our life is all about just letting things come at us. So that's to me is the difference between the kind of pansy, you know, kind of feeling when people say oh, manifesting or positive thinking change, you know. No, it's action. It's actually really a process.
- [30:58]
Host
Do you have like a morning routine, like a foundation that you do in
- [31:03]
Steve
the morning, every morning?
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Host
Let's hear it.
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Steve
I don't have to wait for my alarm at 4:00 clock anymore. I, I pop up at 4 or right before 4. Why did I start? That is because I used to be the late night drinking, hanging out, you know, that kind of stuff and ruining your day and you want to change and I couldn't sleep. You want to be able to start sleeping, get up at 4 every morning, you'll start sleeping. So that's one of the reasons. And then I do some other things that, that help. I go outside immediately. Well, I usually hit water first. Not usually. Every day I start drinking. I usually drink about 50 ounces in the morning. I found that that works for me. But I, I hit water, I take a couple of my supplements. I have this different kind of supplement routine is I like to take them individually so I can think about each one of Them as I take them, I go outside.
- [31:55]
Host
Where do you take supplement was.
- [31:57]
Steve
I take a, you know, omega 3 vitamin, D K. I have a multivitamin drink that I really like to just kind of get the rest of that. I do. I do have a couple peptides that I like to take. So I don't really take a ton of things. I do selenium and I do. Well, that's about it, really. Tell you truth, I do have some things that every once in a while experiment with different things. I like to do that. So I take these things one at a time. But I go outside barefoot and like, somebody asked me and said, well, you think grounding really is a big difference? I said, it doesn't matter at all. And it matters for everything. It's just. That's the way all of it is. Like, none of it is the cure, but it all helps. And going out and be grounded, you'll find a difference. And it's settling you down. I walk forward and I take a grateful walk. So as I walk forward, I look big. Sounds strange, but you just see everything. I see the bird over here flying. I try to really see everything and walk forward. I got that from Huberman talks about that. And I be thankful. And when I first started, I always tell this, but it's true. It's like when I first started, I was thankful for nothing. You know, you. You really get to this feeling sorry for yourself and. And I. I'd be like, I'm thankful for the blue sky. I'm thankful for my dog. As I start doing it day after day, pretty soon I was like, thankful for my dog. This dog saved my life. Also, I'd be thankful for all the stuff that my dog did. And all of a sudden thankful for this happening and that happened. And also my walk would be like 30 minutes. Wait, it's only supposed to be 10. That'd be like 30 minutes of this walk. I come back in, I do kind of a stretch routine just to get blood flow into all my joints. Especially when I first started because I was really, really bad. It made a difference. I still do it every day. I don't really lift at. In the first thing in the morning. I'm better off kind of getting the blood flow going. But it is a pretty. It's a nice routine. I do cold when I first started, I do everyone. Everyone says Steve's really into cold plunging. We have cold plunging at our clinic. I wasn't into cold plunging. I was in a close cold workout. It's a. It's a different program. I got the research from cold water swimming and what that did for people. But I go into cold water and in our area sometimes I'm moving the ice out of the way and I mean it's cold. I go in, I go underneath. And at the time I had. Tonight is so bad I could, I'm even now I'd be, I'd be watching your lips because I couldn't really hear too much. And I found that that like would almost instantly stop when I hit that water. I found myself not fearing the night because at night I used to have hallucinations. I'd have. Nights were horrible. All of a sudden I'd be looking for the morning and then I'd go down the river, I'd hit it. I had a little trailer I'd take up in the mountains and park and do it up in the mountains. But my morning is. I do cold. I have a infrared blanket that I do after that. I like, I like cold before I work out. I don't like to do it after I work out. I feel like there's more benefit. So I'll do the cold. And that's really, that's really my morning routine right there. And then I go into the rest. See to me movement is an all day thing and I'm pretty discipline about continuing to do that. I usually do my hard workout like my miles in the afternoon, but that's, that would be the same. Sometimes I do the morning run, but what I just told you would be my morning routine. Then I'll come back in and hit a protein shake, get my 30 grams of protein is what I try to get. I usually get about 50 or 60 so.
- [35:55]
Host
And is running your main form of movement now?
- [36:00]
Steve
Yes, walking and running. I, you know, I didn't run 350 miles away, some people say. And I'm doing a new one. It's 300 miles with 60,000ft of gain. You don't really run all of it. A lot of it's climbing, a lot of it is walking. But I walk at about almost four miles an hour. So I keep a good pace. It's not, it's not lazy. And I do this thing even in the water in the morning. I should have brought this up. I have this thing I develop. I call it a brain hit. And I got it from research from MIT where she was talking about. It was a whole different subject, but she was talking about 40 Hz light and sound, which we do at our clinic as well. But that it caused Amyloid plaque to recede. But if you read further, it's a transient event. It comes back to a certain extent. I won't go there, but I'm not a researcher, I mean, not a expert in that area. But what I realized was that, okay, well, that's when I should be thinking. And when she did it, she, she found that it was, it was greatly improved by exercise. So when I do my cold plunge, I'm doing a brain hit. And a brain hit can be as simple as, like, you know, I used to get frustrated. Those cognitive tests that they tell you to count backwards. I can, could never do it, you know, the count backwards by seven and these things like that. So I do that. I do things that, that make my imagination have to, to function the way I want it to. These different little games that I play. I do it while I work out. And on my run, same thing. I'm not just running and just letting myself think, I'm thinking on purpose. So, so brain hits to me are, everyone wonders why I gained, you know, 70% in cognitive function. These were some of the things that did it. Not one thing. But I do think brain hits had a, had a good effect to it.
- [37:56]
Host
I, I, I, I, I, your brain hit. I call it brain train, okay? And, you know, something that I love to do, and I've started doing it probably a couple years ago, and it sounds like something, you know, you catch grandma doing. But crossword puzzles in the morning. So crossword puzzles in the morning really train the brain. That's great, you know, and it gives you an opportunity. You're not on technology. And it, you know, five, 10 minutes, I got a crossword puzzle, thick book, and I just start banging out crossword puzzle. And you know, it's, I've got kids, so, like, instead of my kids seeing me on a phone or on a computer in the morning when they're doing their morning thing and they're running around the house, I'm just sitting there doing a crossword puzzle. And it really. And I got that from my buddy Rob Dyrdek, who is just an insane human being when it comes to human, human optimization. He, so he, he called his stuff Brain Train. And he, he has an app that he uses for, for training his brain in the morning. But for me, I was like, you know, I'm going analog with this.
- [39:04]
Steve
That's cool.
- [39:05]
Host
And like that and, and, and you know, it just gets my, like every, every, like, functionality within our body could use exercise, right? Like everything. And, and so, you know, given, you know, movement for me. Fitness for me is, is, is a non negotiable. It's, it's a, it's a massive part of why I think I've been able to. Well, it's, I've built everything from my ability to commit to fitness, everything in my life.
- [39:32]
Steve
It's movement is life. Yeah. And I would challenge you. Like I had a guy, this is just the other day, he said, well, I like to do cross refills. I do a lot of cross. I said, okay, so you don't get to do crossword puzzles. Why? Because you're used to that, you know, challenging the, the whole thing is challenging the body constantly keep challenging the brain, the body. So I'm, you know, I was, I tell him he made him mad at first, then he started realizing this is hard. Yeah, exactly. That's the whole point is to keep changing, keep doing things that challenge you all the time. And it's. Anytime you start to get too into it, I find myself doing the same thing. I was like, okay, now I gotta change. And it sucks sometimes, but gotta change and keep, keep growing with that. But it is challenging. And same with the body. It's like, you know, you get a guy who's 80 pounds overweight, I know what it feels like. You can't feel your bicep, you can't feel your stomach, you just feel the fat. And there's not a body to brain connection. And you need that body brain connection. So slowing a person down and making them feel, you know, time and attention is important for, for the brain too, not just the body, but as they start to actually feel. I mean, you know, I use this story, you get two guys doing a bench press, right. One guy goes in there and he's just like knocking it out. He's, he's not going to gain very much. You get another guy that goes in there and it can see it. Imagine what's happening to that muscle, to, to himself. And he's, he's, he's concentrating in that way. He'll gain twice as much.
- [40:59]
Host
That's the Arnold stuff too. Yeah, Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Schwarzenegger. His whole thing was the brain, body connection. When he lifted weights. So he would look at his bicep. Yeah, he'd go into his bicep.
- [41:12]
Steve
Yeah.
- [41:13]
Host
And I think about that a lot when I train.
- [41:15]
Steve
Yeah.
- [41:15]
Host
You know, because I'm, I'm not that I'm old, but, you know, I've been training for years.
- [41:22]
Steve
Yeah.
- [41:23]
Host
20. Really. I, you know, I've really started like my full training program. Protocol 21 years ago. Yeah, but 21 years of banging weights around and, you know, I was a Muay Thai kickboxer, just like put my body through hell.
- [41:37]
Steve
Right.
- [41:39]
Host
You know, like I don't need to lift super heavy weight anymore.
- [41:43]
Steve
No.
- [41:43]
Host
You know, like, I, I, it's rare that there's, there's ever 225. More than £225 on a bar.
- [41:49]
Steve
Did you ever. That's always crack up because I think it was us when we were kids and four football players and stuff. The, the amount of weight we'd throw around, did it really make the difference? So I, I can't agree more.
- [41:59]
Host
I don't think that's, that's something that I really want to actually start talking more about too, because I am in maybe the best shape of my life right now, and I, and I'm not going, I still go hard, but I'm not going as hard as I used to go. I'm not pulling 500 pounds off the ground and I'd be injured all the time.
- [42:20]
Steve
You know, can you pull 255 times? 10 times? I mean, it comes down to, to how. What's it used for? Right? It's like. So I'm just joking again, but it's like as a quarterback, I was a quarterback, why was I so worried about what my bench was and how much weight I was on my bench? More important it would have been the, the amount of reps and my strength over, over a period of time. But yeah, it's interesting how, how I think we're learning that, you know, all of us, you and me both, the,
- [42:52]
Host
the, the, the ability to. I really want to bring home this discipline thing because and, and, and every people that, that have been following along on my journey, you know, like you said, discipline is the most important piece. Basically fighting for you was ultimately harnessing discipline, and you didn't really harness discipline in, in a, intentional way until you were 58. Right. And so anybody listening, going through whatever you're going through, just understand that discipline is not a bad word. No, you know, it's just really not a bad word. What it, what it. Can you tell us about your clinic and where it is and, and what you do there?
- [43:48]
Steve
Yeah, it's in Eastern Washington. It's a big facility, 250, 000 square feet. We have pools and basketball and tennis and all kinds of things. I believe in play hard, live well is what I tell people. And most of the people are there to do that. At the same time, we have primary Care, we have behavioral health and physical therapy and, and we have a pretty extensive program when it comes to what we're talking about, which is we call it regenerative therapy. It's, it's a wonderful place to continue to grow. And it's like I, like I started to say, you know, health is not a individual sport, it's a team sport. And we developed a software called Home Teams. And the whole idea is, is to help people, not do it alone. I mean if you've probably been around, caring for somebody by yourself is one of the hardest things you could ever do, if not the hardest thing you'll ever do. Karen, as a team is like energy, it's like Fusion. So we, this software helps you kind of recruit your team of your family, your friends. It's hilarious. The lady down the street also I'll go by and help out and of a sudden the guy from Rotary Club. And pretty soon you got this team. And in that team we really worked on it at we, I think of our clinic as a lab on how we work together as a team, coaches and all the people. But you start to learn to work together and to care for each other. And again I will say it, caring is the healthiest thing you can do. And people, even the person on a team, let's say guy's got a chronic health problem and the team's created to help him. First question we ask him is, okay, so how are you going to care for your team? And it's, it's really fun to watch people. You see, I think of my mom before she passed away, but she, she thrived. But her team, she would you go see her and she'd say, I got this lady coming at, at 2:00 and she's going through a divorce and she thinks it's the end of the world. I got to tell her she started taking her role because see the fourth quarter in life matters and that sounds really stupid, doesn't it? But you know, in football, we go fourth quarter, we get all fired up because we know that's when the game's won or lost, right? School, you go fourth quarter. I got to get my studies together. But somewhere in America, fourth quarter, life is like, okay, go live in the old folks home, be it, you know, you know, thank you for your effort. What does that teach our kids? What's to teach all of us about caring for somebody. So including them and getting the 90 year old wisdom into a team is the team starts to, like I say, create. Fusion also needs to see The. The nephew who thought he, you know, he'd given up on life. Maybe he's going through some of the things that you and I've been through. All of a sudden he's like, well, I can go over and have coffee with grandma. All of a sudden, it starts becoming something important. There's a purpose, and if anybody knows purposes, you guys here in New York, it's like someone hits the towers. The whole town came together, the whole city was like, became a team. Same thing happens in people's homes when once they have purpose, you see these relationships heal. You see people start to thrive. And so that's part of our. With our clinic. So talking about our clinic is that we. Yeah, we have all kinds of sports, we have all kinds of therapies. We. We have hyperbaric. We have transcranial photobiomodulation. We have, you know, therapy after therapy that we do for people and make available to people. We. It can get expensive. But about 25 to 30% of the people that go through our clinic are for free. Something I set out to do because when I was sick, I remember there was a clinic I was supposed to go to. It was 60 grand for two weeks. And it was. And I asked the guy said, can you get me better in two weeks? He said, well, no. Well, what am I paying you 60 grand for? It's expensive. And we really fight to keep costs down. We've tried to take what we do in the clinic and make it so you can do it at home, so somebody here in New York can sign up for. For our system and we can help them from afar because we've. We've tried to replicate all parts of it and how to do it without cost or reduce costs. So that's really what our clinic was about, was. Is kind of using it as a lab, and we continue to do that. And we're. We're researching all the time. Our software is so cool, I have to tell you. It's just like. It blows my mind.
- [48:18]
Host
What's it called?
- [48:19]
Steve
Home team. But it. It allows you, like, you can. So I'm in control. Not the doctor. I'm in control of my information. I have all my information in this thing, and so does my team, because I decided that they could. So I got my information in here, my health information, and I can go. And this is a true story. It's like, okay, Mom's movement is down 27% this week. What that information going to the doctor. Doctor says, well, let's figure out why is she. And you start going in all the, all the reasons the doctors love it because there's better and more extensive information. Because healthcare should have always started the home. It should be home integrating to the hospital, not the hospital trying to integrate to the home. And so bringing that back and bringing kind of the decentralization of healthcare right now is like, you know, it's all over the map. We, you, you got this doctor, and then he refers you to that doctor, and this doctor's got going on over here and you're trying to coordinate it all. But when it's at the home and I've got all control and my software, you can sit there and go, okay, through. So I need, what do I do now? I mean, literally, like, I can go to the doctor and listen to the doctor walk away from the software and say, what did he say? Because so many of us don't remember, right? Or don't understand. Software goes through all. It tells me what he said and why he said it. And I can say, is that what he said two months ago? No, two months ago he said this. And I can compare to other doctors around the world. I can get so much more information and I'm in. I feel like I, I have the mentor and the, the, again, the doctor is very, very important. But now I've got a better base for that. And I can say, okay, send this information to that doctor and can you book me appointment? It'll do that for you too. So it, it really helps bring the team together. We tried to take AI and not replace human contact, but to enhance it. So you get this whole team talking together and you see people patting each other on the back and saying, man, the nephew picked up grandma seven times this week, you know, and you see people patting each other on the back and it starts to create this purpose. But yeah, that's really what the clinic was about, was to create this lab. We're still doing it, we're still learning and growing, and the software gets better and better and what it does.
- [50:40]
Host
Let's get some of that 65 years on this planet wisdom. One piece of advice to be remembered by. If there's one piece of advice that you could give the world, that would be the last piece of advice you'd give and the one that you'd want to be remembered by that that you think will be the most impactful for people, what would it be? Based on your experience in life, you're
- [51:07]
Steve
on this earth for a reason. If and if you can think of that every day, I am here for A reason. And that now you're looking for what is in your path, what your path is today, taking it one day at a time. You're okay, but you're here for a reason. You're not just here to sit. You know, Jeopardy might be fun to watch, but you're. You're here for a reason. I mean, I would say that probably, number one thing,
- [51:36]
Host
you're at the end on the bed. You know, it's the end. What would you want people, how would you want people to remember you?
- [51:50]
Steve
That I didn't give up, that I was kind. I think those are, those are important things. Is that you to me, There was a time in my life where I gave up. And what did that, what did that do? You know, it's like you. I even think of, like I said, my friends, that a couple friends have committed suicide. I can't wait to talk to them again because they didn't have a right to give up. There's. There's people that need you, even if you don't know anybody. That's the one thing I found out through what I've been through, is that even when I felt like everybody hated me, whatever it was, there's still people out there that you can help. And so I would, I would want to say that I didn't give up. And then I became a kind man. And that is something to take pride in. And I don't know why people think you shouldn't have that kind of pride. It should, you should be able to take pride in doing good and continue to try to do better all the time.
- [52:52]
Host
Last question. What is your keep?
- [52:56]
Steve
You know, I can share some of it, but I also think that some of your keep should be private. But my keep is I'm going to help everybody on my path. And I always laugh at this because be careful what you say. I mean, it really is. There's a. All of a sudden there was a lot more people that I could help than I probably thought I was going to do. And it became much more of a full time situation than I thought. But I think that that is probably the biggest part of my keep. You can get into certain details, I can say why, but I don't think those other. I don't think that people need to share their inner thoughts on TV or anywhere else. And, and I, I think it's funny. Not funny, but I didn't want to be the guy who says, okay, I. I got my arm cut off and so, well, I should write a book. You know, I mean, it's like, take your disaster and make it into something. And that's great, people. You know, I'm not. I'm not trying to put anybody down, but I'm. My point is, is like all of us, maybe you haven't had a disaster in your life. It's not about that. It's not like some. That's not the pride. The pride is in doing what you're here to do. And I think that that's something that people. People want to think, well, there's somebody else that can do something great, and great is helping that lady at Walmart. It's making a difference on whoever's in your path.
- [54:29]
Host
Steve, awesome time, awesome conversation. Where can people follow along on your journey? Where can they find out about the clinic?
- [54:40]
Steve
Bray100, I think on Instagram is Bray100. There's also Bray100.com hometeams IO is what we're doing with the software. And I have to say, you know, I truly do mean we help anybody. We can our path. So we're. If you're needing help, you're feeling all alone, you're feeling like you can't go forward. Hey, we're here.
- [55:02]
Host
You're awesome, dude. Straight up awesome. I'm sure you guys got as much value out of that as I did. Thank you so much for listening to the creatures. Have a podcast subscribing to the creatures that have a podcast. Please share this podcast. Please share the podcast, post it on social media, Share it with your friends, your family, anyone who you think could potentially benefit from this from this episode on the podcast with Steve. And man, like I'm. My cup is full today. I will tell you that I appreciate you, I love you, and until the next one, y', all, peace.