Longevity Habit Stacking: Simple Daily Habits with Ron Russell

Ron Russell: Start with one small thing in each of the categories. The mind-body, one in the movement strength and one in the nutrition. Start with one in each. Nothing too big. And then habit stack. Okay, I’m eating blueberries every day. Now I’m going to add matcha. Now I’m going to add more greens.

Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dr. Haley Show, the podcast dedicated to helping you optimize your health. Each episode there will be an interview or a message to help you discover better health. We will be featuring health radicals on the show to bring new ideas to the table, as well as doubling down on key fundamentals to support you living your best life. Your host is no other than the founder of Haley Nutrition Dr. Michael Haley.

Dr. Haley: This is the Dr. Haley Show podcast. I’m Dr. Michael Haley, your show host. And, well, what if the most useful longevity habit is one you can actually stick with. Today we’re exploring small changes in how you eat, move, sleep, and manage stress and how to build them into the day you already have. Plant based chef and longevity educator Ron Russell joins me to make healthy living more practical, more enjoyable, and easier to keep doing. Living longer is one goal. Having the strength, the energy and independence to enjoy those years is another. Today we’re talking about healthspan and longevity habit stacking: connecting small, repeatable actions to routines you already have.

Dr. Haley: We’ll explore what belongs on your plate, how to make healthy food taste good, and how to separate useful advice from promises that go beyond the evidence. My guest today is Ron Russell, a plant-based chef, longevity educator, author of Longevity Visa. And the cover also says evidence-based strategies to slow aging your passport to 20 more healthy years. Ron co-founded SunCafe Organic in Los Angeles, and his work has centered on helping people turn healthy eating into food they genuinely enjoy. Today, we’ll explore his approach to stacking small habits for a healthier, more active life. Ron, welcome to the Dr. Haley Show podcast.

Dr. Haley: I’m really honored to have you on, and I like today’s topic. As far as talking about stacking healthy habits when it comes to dietary choices, there’s probably going to be some people that listening that maybe disagree or that works for you, but it doesn’t work for me. And anytime we talk about diet, it’s one of those we’re never going to find two people that agree 100% on everything, right? But what can we expect to learn and take home from this discussion?

Ron Russell: Well, like you said, small little habits add up. And if you add enough good habits and take away enough bad habits, your overall healthspan meaning not just longevity. Who wants to live an extra 30 years but be bedridden? So we want to be healthy in those extra years. So if you add enough good habits, the evidence shows that you’re going to live a much healthier, happier life.

Dr. Haley: Yeah, let’s start this show off with something that they can take home with them right now. What’s one healthy habit that they can implement today?

Ron Russell: I’ll give you an example. On my list in the nutrition category, blueberries is one of the healthiest things you can eat. So I have that on my daily habit. And what that means is I not only get fresh blueberries, which is great, but I always have frozen blueberries, so I never run out. So I put them in my smoothie, I’ll defrost them and, make a little dessert out of it or just eat them as a snack. That’s a simple habit that isn’t unpleasant. Blueberries are lovely, and they have all sorts of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. So that’s an example of the simple thing you can do.

Ron Russell: And then another one that I stack on top of that is I do matcha tea every day. And the reason I chose matcha tea: it is very anti-inflammatory. Lots of clinical evidence about it. On top of that, it’s one of the mainstays of the Okinawa diet, which is one of the blue zones. There are six blue zones in the world where the most number of people live past 100. And that’s one of their mainstays of their diet. So those are two quick things I do that anyone can do,. And they’re very enjoyable. And I’m very big that you choose things that you will enjoy.

Ron Russell: If you hate blueberries, don’t do blueberries. Find something else. Raspberries or but Especially if you’re going to have a big stack, like I have a big stack of habits a day, I have an actual spreadsheet with 55 things I’m willing to do every day, and I don’t do them all. I probably do about 40 a day. And I want them to be enjoyable. You don’t want to be spending your whole day doing things just because it’s good for you. So yeah, I’m big on choosing what makes sense for you.

Dr. Haley: I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now because, well, the last time I had blueberries was yesterday and it was in a smoothie, but I thought I was bending the rules because it was. I get this big bag of frozen blueberries. They’re organic from Costco. But you just gave us permission to have frozen. They don’t have to be fresh.

Ron Russell: Yes, especially. There’s certain things that are just as good frozen. And I think blueberries is in that category. And the reason being is they freeze them right off the tree typically, within a few hours. So they’re very fresh when they freeze them. They don’t lose a lot by being frozen. Some things do. But from what I’ve seen clinically, I don’t see that there’s any evidence that blueberries is one of the things that loses its effectiveness. And what I’ve found is if I get the fresh even as fast as I go through them, I often get the mold And then I worry about, well, how much mold did I probably eat because I didn’t see it at first.

Ron Russell: So with the frozen, I don’t have to worry about that. And so it’s yet another reason I like the frozen for that.

Dr. Haley: Right. Right. Now, the other thing. The last time I had my matcha tea was, well, about a half hour ago. Oh, there you go. But I cheat on that, too. And I think it’s okay. For me, I like to make a concentrate. So a few days ago, I made my concentrate, and I keep it in the refrigerator for a few days, and. And I poured some in my water as a little flavoring, and I. Then I had another concentrate of a ginger lemon with a little bit of stevia mix and I, kind of mixed and match and made my little elixir this morning to start my day.

Dr. Haley: The point being for me, I don’t have time to make everything fresh and I will use frozen. And if I don’t take some of these cheats, I’m not going to. I’m not going to get these done.

Ron Russell: Yeah. No, you have to make, your life work. So, it’s trade-offs, but it’s way better than snacking on potato chips all day long.

Dr. Haley: So for.

Ron Russell: Sure, so it’s like, yeah, little things aren’t going to make that much difference In your example, I do something similar. I make matcha lemonade every day. So what I do is I take an entire lemon, chop it up, put it in a blender with a bunch of water, blend it pretty substantially. And the reason I don’t just juice the lemon, the skin is full of polyphenols. And you’re missing that when you just use the liquidy part. So I blend it all up, put it through a strainer, and then that’s my base. I put in a big, scoop of matcha powder.

Ron Russell: I put in a nice size scoop of stevia to make it sweet, like lemonade, but no sugar spike and mix it all up and fill it to the brim. And I basically do about a liter a day. Or maybe, three quarters of a liter and finish it up the next day. And that’s my go to because I’m not a fan of water, just taste wise. Right? And I love lemonade, so I never seem to tire of it, so why not again go with what I enjoy? It also has all sorts of benefits. Lemons are super healthy. The matcha is super healthy.

Ron Russell: Stevia makes it, low glycemic. So there’s no negatives that I can see to that.

Dr. Haley: Now, Ron, why are you not necessarily a fan of plain water?

Ron Russell: Just taste wise? It’s not that I’m against water. I just find it boring and so I’m not as likely to drink it with lemonade. I love it, so I’m much more likely to keep drinking it where the water. I get bored and I forget about it.

Dr. Haley: Yeah, there’s probably better reasons to that. Maybe you’re just more in touch with it. And I heard the argument that if you drink plain pure water, there’s really one direction nutrients can move and that’s from your body into the water. Sure. And possibly for elimination. The argument being if you’re going to be hydrating may as well get some nutrients with it.

Ron Russell: Exactly. Both the matcha and the lemons, are anti-inflammatory. We haven’t talked about that. But, it’s the basic starting point of most chronic diseases is inflammation. And if you can reduce inflammation in every part of your body, you’re much less likely to, get the chronic diseases. So, yeah, that’s part of my strategy when I’m thinking about these things is both for health and for longevity. If you can eliminate most of the inflammation inside your body, you’re going to have a much better chance of staving off the diseases that take down so many people.

Dr. Haley: You mentioned properties of some of these things, like the matcha is anti-inflammatory for someone that doesn’t know the science. This is high antioxidant. This is anti-inflammatory. This is, has all these benefits. What would be a general rule for someone that doesn’t know the science behind the food, which things they should probably be adding to their plate?

Ron Russell: Well, the quick version is eat from the produce aisle not from the processed aisle. That’s in a nutshell what you should do. It’s proven that, for instance, luncheon meats are as carcinogenic as smoking is by some studies. Soft drinks, have tons of phosphoric acid and sugar and even the non sugar ones have usually alcohol sugars like erythritol or xylitol or whatever And those mess up your gut health and make it so you don’t absorb as much and all sorts of other issues. So, we want to stay away from the, again, the bad habits. Another one I would put in that category is fried food especially has tons of free radicals because you basically to heat the oil high enough to cook the food a fryer turns the oil rancid, essentially.

Ron Russell: So you’re eating rancid oil when you eat fried food. Well that’s messing up your cells. And so anti inflammation and antioxidant foods help to reverse that. And if you avoid those foods altogether, you’re still getting all the benefits of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods. So again it’s just choosing the right habits essentially is how I look at it.

Dr. Haley: So where did this all begin for you? Because you’re in deep. And if I frame it a little bit, you’re vegan.

Ron Russell: I am.

Dr. Haley: Which is very strict. Yes. And vegan to the point of really looking for real foods, for instance, in your vegan lifestyle. Do you consume tofu?

Ron Russell: Yes.

Dr. Haley: Okay. Would you consider that a processed food or would that be a little bit.

Ron Russell: It’s moderately processed. I would say it’s not overly processed. Ideally just eating the soybeans is probably the best, but I think tofu is an acceptable amount of processing. Tempeh is also a soy product, which is a little interesting because they ferment it, which makes it a little more digestible as well. So, again, it’s trade-offs. I still think they’re in the healthy category. I based this partly on a Dr. Michael Greger, who has the website NutritionFacts.org He also wrote the book How Not to Die, which was a big bestseller. And, he only, studies nutrition. He doesn’t see patients. He. That’s all he does is study nutrition.

Ron Russell: I consider him probably the most knowledgeable on nutrition of anyone in the world. He has over a thousand videos about every aspect of nutrition. He’s a go to. He never gives his opinion. It’s always, he states the study and the page number on whatever. He gives an opinion. It’s based on some study. He never just like this is what I think it’s that’s one of the things I like about him. And he’s very accessible, easy to understand. Even though he’ll talk about the medicine of it. He also makes it easy for the average person to understand, too. So he appeals to both doctors and the lay person.

Ron Russell: I feel equally so. He’s a great source to. If you’re unsure about something, he’s a good one to check.

Dr. Haley: I got you. All right. And in your choices. So you’re consuming vegan, but some are cooked and some are raw. You’re not raw vegan.

Ron Russell: Yeah. No, I have salads and such, but I would say two thirds of my food is cooked. Probably.

Dr. Haley: Okay. And how did you decide that cooked food is okay versus raw?

Ron Russell: I’ve gone through raw phases where I’ve been fully raw for six months. And if you think about raw food, a lot of people think it’s very radical. But think about this. There’s 8.4 million species on Earth. How many eat cooked food? There’s one species that eats cooked food. Now we force it on dogs and cats. But if it weren’t for us, they would be eating raw food as well. So I can easily argue that it’s the natural way to eat now. Is it easy in our society now? So part of it is, accepting that I live in the society and everything’s not perfect, so I’m willing to eat cooked food.

Ron Russell: I think there are benefits to raw food, including that you don’t kill the enzymes in the food. So again, it’s all part of the, process of digestion if you have the natural enzymes in the food. Largely the food is easier to digest. There are exceptions, which we won’t go into, but, yeah, I think eating a good amount of raw food is good for you. Am I willing to alienate myself from ever going out to eat? No, I love food. What can I say?

Dr. Haley: This is interesting because I just had a light bulb moment and something you said because you were talking about cooking and killing the enzymes. Yeah. And it was interesting because I never really thought about it. And probably because some people will say, well, as soon as you take the plant from the field and, you cut it open and or whatever, you kill the enzyme, you don’t it takes a while for the

Ron Russell: Enzyme to disappear. Yeah.

Dr. Haley: They keep on digesting right there in the food itself.

Ron Russell: Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Haley: But cooking it probably denatures those enzymes.

Ron Russell: The key number is some people put it at 116°F is where most of the enzymes get killed. And of course, if you’re going to cook food, it’s going to go well over 116 degrees. It’s going to go up to at least 250.

Dr. Haley: Yeah. And enzymes do digest. They help you digest. And when you’re chewing you’re kind of releasing them from the food, masticating it into that so that digestion can begin. Yeah. And kind of prepare it, break it down enough for your microbiome to take over.

Ron Russell: Exactly.

Dr. Haley: That’s interesting. That was a true light bulb moment for me.

Ron Russell: I also will mention we’re not quite the same subject, but related. My number one food for longevity is dark leafy greens. And I emphasize dark meaning, not just lettuce. Lettuce is fine and it’s good for you, but it’s not filled with nutrients like the dark ones are. Especially cruciferous vegetables. Kale. Broccoli. Chard. Well, chard isn’t a cruciferous, but it’s dark, leafy, collard greens. There’s a bunch of them. Cabbages.

Dr. Haley: Spinach or no spinach?

Ron Russell: Well, spinach is a little more complex, as you’re alluding to. Spinach, number one is not a cruciferous vegetable. It does have a lot of nutrients, but it also has some issues with it. So I would say you don’t have to get rid of spinach in your diet, but don’t concentrate on spinach. I would much rather you do cabbage and kale as kind of your mainstay greens. And you can cook them or eat them raw. And the raw form, my most typical way is to put kale in a blender with my smoothie. So I’ll put in, pea protein for protein. And, I have mushroom powder and all sorts of other things I put in.

Ron Russell: And, kale is just one of the most nutrient dense foods you can eat. Dr. Fuhrman created an actual index of nutritional density, and there were three vegetables that were perfect. They got a score of 1000. To give you an idea, he thinks lentils are very healthy for you, but they only got 110 score. So a thousand is ten times more nutrient dense than lentils, which he considers very healthy. So kale was one. Collard greens was one. And then no one ever guesses the third one which is Watercress

Dr. Haley: Okay.

Ron Russell: Sorry I cut you off before you had a chance to guess.

Dr. Haley: Yeah. No, I think I said it before I heard it. See the I don’t know, there’s the internet delay, so who knows. Yeah, but I heard that I, it was like one of the most nutrient dense foods. And so I used to grow it in my front yard.

Ron Russell: I would highly if you want to feel different in the nutrition category, there’s other categories that are very important and equally important like movement. And we’ll get into. But if you want to feel good quickly add a pound of leafy greens to your diet a day. Now that sounds like a lot. And it is, but here’s how I do it. Smoothie. I get a third of the I throw a big chunk of kale or, some other green chard, what I would call the neutral greens that don’t have a bitterness to them. Like if you put in mustard greens or carrot greens into that smoothie, it’s going to taste awful.

Ron Russell: So the neutral greens are ones that barely have any flavor, like chard and kale. So then I do a salad most days, so I get maybe another third. And then I tell people I’ve done over 400 cooking classes and wellness classes, and I tell people, get in the habit of putting dark leafy greens chopped fine so you don’t barely notice them into everything you cook. So a stir fry, a casserole, tacos. You can use cabbage instead of lettuce. Which I actually prefer taste wise. You can, put it in almost anything you’re cooking. Not everything, but most things you can throw in, like I’ll do enchiladas and I’ll throw in a handful of chopped chard, and you just get into that habit and you’ll be getting in the greens and you’ll barely notice them.

Ron Russell: So those are my three ways I get in the greens. But no other thing you eat is more important than greens.

Dr. Haley: I’m going to agree with that. And with that I have my own cheat again. I’ve got this big 30 by 50 inch cutting board and you talk about chopping them finely. For me, I use a pizza cutter. So it’s just zip, back and forth and until it’s chopped down nice and fine and all of a sudden, the salad that was this big is now this big. It’s a lot smaller, compact.

Ron Russell: You’ve already kind of chewed it a little bit with the knife.

Dr. Haley: Absolutely. Absolutely. Now we have very different diets. I am not vegan, but, for me, I believe that, plant foods are super important. They are medicine and tremendously beneficial. So my emphasis is on plant foods.

Ron Russell: Sure. Okay.

Dr. Haley: How did you decide to get vegan? I would imagine you were probably exposed to animal foods growing up.

Ron Russell: Yes. So, my nutrition emphasis started very young. Like, I started noticing nutrition at around age ten, which is probably not a normal ten-year-old. But my mother talked to me about she wanted to be a good mother, so she read books on nutrition. So when I grew up, I never had white bread. It was always multigrain bread. I didn’t have a Coca-Cola until I was 18 years old. There were never fizzy drinks in this house. It wasn’t perfect. I don’t want to make it sound like it was because I looked back and I go, well, there were a lot of problems with the diet.

Ron Russell: Not maybe problems, but not as healthy as it could be. And but I did get it in my head that nutrition was important. Then I was a cook, earning my way through college. And one night I had 50 pieces of meat on the grill like any other night. I’d been doing it for two years, and I still cannot explain why this happened. It’s still a mystery to me. That night, I was looking at the blood pouring out, looking at the grease in my face, and just thought, this is disgusting. And I also love animals. What am I doing here? And like I said, I can’t explain it.

Ron Russell: I hadn’t been reading books about veganism or no one exposed me to it. And I just decided, nope, that’s not for me. And from that night on, I never saw meat of any kind as food again. So it was not a tough decision. It was just like, oh, that’s not food to me. And it’s odd. I still can’t explain it. But what was interesting is then I started reading about plant-based and started realizing, oh, there’s some actual nutritional reasons to do this. You don’t get as much cholesterol in your system. One of the blue zones is, Altadena. Is it Altadena?

Ron Russell: Yeah. Or Alta Loma. I forget now where the seventh day Adventists live in great number. And they’re mostly vegetarian and vegan, and they’re one of the blue zones that lives the most over age 100. So there’s a quite a bit of evidence. Dr. Colin Campbell did the largest nutritional study. I think it’s still ever called the China study. And he wasn’t vegan at all. But during the study, he realized the people that ate closest to plant-based, were the longest lived and had the least number of chronic diseases. So anyway, that’s how it came about, that I became well, at that point it was vegan.

Ron Russell: I still ate cheese and milk products, but then I’ve been vegan since 2001. Okay. I think there’s a lot of evidence that dairy products are just not healthy for us. I’ve also seen just observationally, I’ve seen many people that come to my cooking classes that gave up milk and got over all sorts of conditions, like asthma. Things that are related to immune. Somehow I think milk reduces your immune system to some extent. It causes phlegm, which is, again, kind of a an indicator of inflammation, a form of inflammation. So, it’s all about reducing that inflammation so your body functions properly anyway.

Ron Russell: Yeah.

Dr. Haley: Ron, going back to that night in that restaurant with the 50 things of beef in front of you, was that your last day there?

Ron Russell: No, I lasted another six months. They asked me to be a manager when I quit and I said, yeah, no, I’m out.

Dr. Haley: Okay. So you didn’t run out into the restaurant and yell, murderers,?

Ron Russell: No, I didn’t go quite that postal. Yeah. No. And I don’t go postal around people. I’m not. I would love it that if everyone did. Because I do think it’s a kinder way to live. I think there’s all sorts of health benefits. I think there’s a moral toll to the society that especially that has factory farming. If you’re going to have farming, animals, that’s one thing. But factory farming, if you look into it’s just disgusting. The way we treat our animals.

Dr. Haley: One thing, one position I have on this is, and I do consume animal foods. But I firmly believe that anyone that’s going to eat meat should at least once kill their own animal.

Ron Russell: I think that’s a good policy.

Dr. Haley: And.

Ron Russell: Quite frankly, I respect hunters that believe in, they kill it, eat it fresh. They handle the whole process. I have a certain respect for that. It’s way beyond what I could do, but, it’s better than buying factory farm stuff in the market.

Dr. Haley: Yeah. And then when you do that, and before you consume that, pray and understand what prayer really is now.

Ron Russell: Yeah.

Dr. Haley: Because it’s all of a sudden, wow, I understand, there was an exchange here. Yes. A life so that I can eat this. And all of a sudden you consider and you say, okay, I don’t I already ate enough. I’m not going to throw this away. I’m going to finish this. Right. I’ll put it aside until and you start having a lot more understanding and care and respect. I.

Ron Russell: I totally agree with you. There’s a wonderful story. Tolstoy was a vegetarian. The famous Russian author. And he threw a dinner party. And this one woman said, oh, I have to have meat at every meal. So the story goes, I don’t know if it’s true, but she came to dinner, and at her table, at her plate was a live chicken. And he said, go ahead. And she ended up eating vegetarian that night.

Dr. Haley: Oh, boy. Yeah, it really brings it home. And it’s a good experience for, if you’re going to continue consuming animal foods.

Ron Russell: Understanding at least understanding what you’re doing and what the cycle of life is. And I think there’s all sorts of benefits to understanding more because many of these industries don’t want you to understand the industry,. Yeah. You see the commercial with happy chickens going to, some farm. It’s like, no, that’s not the reality.

Dr. Haley: So I remember one of my kids and, because we just get it from the grocery store. What is hamburger meat? Oh, it’s just you just you get it at the grocery store? Yeah. And I remember explaining, that’s blood. He said that’s blood. I thought it was juice.

Ron Russell: Yeah.

Dr. Haley: Because you’re so far removed from the process because we get it from the grocery store.

Ron Russell: Absolutely.

Dr. Haley: And we’re desensitized. We have no idea. We don’t understand. So, Ron, as we’re talking about the differences between animal foods and plant foods, are there challenges getting all of your nutrition with a plant only diet?

Ron Russell: I guess the answer is yes and no. The answer is yes. If you follow a healthy diet, the answer is no. If you’re vegan and you eat, candy all day long and dessert and snacks and you can be just as unhealthy or more so as a vegan that doesn’t eat healthy foods. But if you eat healthy, foods such as my dark leafy greens. Concentrate for your protein on legumes, lentils and beans, including soybeans. I think you don’t have a hard time at all. Okay. In fact, there was just a new study this last month that said the healthiest protein source.

Ron Russell: I think it was a Harvard study. Was tofu. I don’t know if you saw that study.

Dr. Haley: No, I didn’t. I actually got an email this morning from, a plant-based newsletter that I’m subscribed to. And it was, you wouldn’t believe what the number one protein was, and tofu was what actually came to my mind, which is why I probably mentioned it earlier to you. Right. Yes or no, but I didn’t actually click through to see what it was. I just assumed that it was probably tofu. And when I think of protein from a plant-based diet, I am thinking of mostly beans. Right? High fiber, high protein. Thinking how good that is for you. Now, I don’t know if this is ruining that.

Dr. Haley: When I eat beans, I sprout them and I’ll sprout them for a couple days so that they’re, grow nice tails that are 2 to 3 times longer than the bean itself. That’s about where I like them. But I don’t know if it’s still having that same full amount of protein once they’ve been sprouted. I’m sure.

Ron Russell: You’ve probably doubled the available protein if you sprout them. Sprouting adds so much nutrition level to anything you can sprout. An example is broccoli is super healthy for you. Broccoli sprouts is truly maybe the most super of the superfoods. It’s supposed to have 100 times more. I can never pronounce this sulforaphane or whatever it is. Which is a cancer fighting agent that’s in broccoli. But by sprouting the seeds, you get 100 times more. And they’ve been doing research on it, that it may be one of the key foods for reversing cancer. It’s not a done deal, but there’s substantial evidence, let’s say.

Ron Russell: So, yeah, sprouting things always increases the nutritional value of it and also the digestibility of it. So I particularly don’t love the flavor of sprouted beans, there’s exceptions. There’s some that I do. But so I do love cooked beans not sprouting. But if you enjoy the sprouted ones, like more power to you. You’re getting a lot of nutrition that way.

Dr. Haley: Yeah, absolutely. Like you take something like chickpeas and sprout them and maybe grind them down into a nice hummus. Oh, yeah. You can throw your sesame seeds right in the Vitamix, with your hummus and some lemon and some garlic, and you just have a.

Ron Russell: Sounds good.

Dr. Haley: Raw hummus. Now, again, I don’t want to confuse people. I am not vegan. I’m not a raw vegan. Right. But it is my emphasis and I know how much nutrition I’m getting from it. But I wasn’t sure about on the protein issue because.

Ron Russell: You’re getting more protein that way. Also, I’ll mention one of the leaders in longevity. Well, Dr. Greger has written a book, How to Live Longer or whatever. But also Dr. David Sinclair, by many estimates, may be the premier longevity expert at Harvard. And while he readily admits he’s not fully plant-based, he says that’s the ideal. And he has changed his diet to mostly plant-based. But he’s just not strict about it. So even top longevity experts, there’s overwhelming evidence that you’re going to live a healthier, longer life. The more plant-based you go towards. And the blue zones. Show that as well.

Ron Russell: Most of the people in the blue zones, except the Loma Linda people are not vegetarian, but they are mostly plant-based. They typically in those zones. Eat plant centered with a sprinkling of fish or meats just for flavoring kind of thing. So think Okinawa. Think, there’s a place in Costa Rica’s one of the blue zones, and they eat mostly black beans as their protein source. Some meat, but, it’s plant centered, we’ll say. Yeah.

Dr. Haley: Is it possible that the small amount of animal foods is providing that B12 or something that is a benefit to their health?

Ron Russell: Could be. Yeah. If you’re vegan, you definitely want to supplement with B12. We haven’t talked about supplements, and I think that’s the lesser part of longevity. But there’s some important ones. I think most people don’t get enough D3 and K2. So that’s one I would highly recommend people consider. It’s sometimes hard for people to get omega-3, and unless they have some kind of habit, that gets enough omega-3s in their diet.

Dr. Haley: Obviously you can, if you just want omega-3s, you can pile up on flaxseed, right?

Ron Russell: Yeah. I’ll give.

Dr. Haley: You what you’re not necessarily getting the right spectrum of omega-3s

Ron Russell: Well, no, there’s a lot of evidence that if you do flaxseed or chia seeds, you’re getting enough omega-3s,. But the key. There’s a little wrinkle with flaxseed and chia seed as well. Quite frankly anything. With omega-3s I dated a food technologist for many years, and I heard her lecture about flaxseed a lot of times. So I’ve heard this story quite a bit, but I see people do flaxseed wrong. First of all, it has to be ground or you’re not. It’s such a hard seed. Your digestion isn’t going to pop it open and you’re not going to get much some benefit, but not the full benefit of it.

Ron Russell: Number two, I see like at Trader Joe’s, I don’t know if they still do, but they used to have ground flaxseed in available for purchase. Yeah, 100%. That is rancid. It cannot be anything but rancid. Omega-3-rich flaxseed has less than a couple of days of shelf life. So, You can’t. I’m sorry.

Dr. Haley: Put it in. Oh. You’re saying. Say that again. You’re saying that so.

Ron Russell: If it’s pre-ground and it’s sat on a shelf more than a day or two, which, of course, it had to be processed, shipped, blah. It’s way more than two days. It’s rancid

Dr. Haley: Compared to the whole seed. How long are the.

Ron Russell: The whole seed is so thick that nature, in its infinite wisdom, knew that it needed thick shell to protect the omega-3s So it’s fully protected as a seed. And then you just want to grind it with a coffee grinder or with your blender just before, let’s say you’re making a smoothie. You put in the flaxseed first, grind it, then put in the rest of the ingredients for the smoothie. Then you’re fine. You’re eating it right away, but you don’t want to grind it and let it sit around. Also, if you buy, the flaxseed oil, you’ll notice that it comes in a completely black opaque container.

Ron Russell: That’s because sunlight also makes flaxseed rancid. So and they keep it in the refrigerated section. But even then, what she would do if she did buy that kind of, pre-processed, she would put it in the freezer. So it’s slowed down the aging process even more. But she recommends primarily you just get the flaxseed in its whole state and then grind it just before you eat it. And then ideally.

Dr. Haley: I feel really good about myself again.

Ron Russell: Oh.

Dr. Haley: No. Well, my favorite thing. And, I get like, 5 or 10 pound bags of flaxseeds. Wow. They have the big bags of, chia seeds at Costco that are organic. They don’t have a Flax seed organic, so I have to at Costco, so I have to order that. But what do I do with them? They go in the blender, the seeds go in the in the smoothie and pulverize right there and then. And it gives such a nice nutty taste to the smoothie.

Ron Russell: Yeah, exactly. It does have a nice flavor. That can add to the flavor of something for sure. Yeah.

Dr. Haley: But yeah, the pre-ground stuff. Absolutely.

Ron Russell: We’re doing it.

Dr. Haley: Just right. Why Would you buy that.

Ron Russell: Yeah. And I see people buy it all the time. And I’m like I want to go over. And sometimes I have said you really should not buy the pre-ground. So I’m probably making a nuisance of myself, but I hate to see somebody think they’re doing something healthy that is actually causing free radicals in their system. When something goes rancid, it creates free radicals. So therefore you’re destroying your cells. When you eat something like that or fried food, you’re destroying your cell structure. And that’s one of the things that ages us most quickly.

Dr. Haley: Yeah. Hey, Ron, I want to ask you about your book, because on the cover where it talks about 20 years, are we talking about 20 more years or 20 healthier years?

Ron Russell: I’m hoping healthier years. That’s what the book is designed for. So longevity visa. I was doing all these classes and then I started meeting a lot of these lifestyle medical doctors. And then I started working with Dr. Dean Ornish at his clinic at UCLA Medical Center.

Dr. Haley: What was your involvement on that?

Ron Russell: Well, I was just providing them food, but it’s very specific what he was wanting. And I was one of the only people that could do what he wanted from a restaurant. And so I used to cook the meals myself and take them to UCLA Medical Center for he’d have like 15, 20 patients at a time that needed food. And so I feed them and then the staff would send them to my cooking classes to learn how to do it at home, because, these people were mostly meat based and suddenly they’re thrown into the plant-based world and don’t know how to start.

Ron Russell: So they’d come to my cooking classes and my emphasis is always on as fast as I can make healthy, tasty gourmet. That’s my goal. 15 minutes or less doesn’t always happen, but that’s my goal. And then I want it to really taste great because I wanted to taste better than meat. And our restaurant kind of proved that because twice we were named one of the ten best restaurants in Los Angeles by OpenTable. Not in the vegan category, but overall, twice we were named one of the 20 best Restaurants in California. So we really were about flavor, and my business partner had a lot to do with that.

Ron Russell: She had the most amazing taste, and it was very frustrating because we’d have to have six variations on a dish before she’d let us put it on the menu, because she actually has a medical condition called super tasting. It’s an actual medical condition. You can test it with litmus paper, and it means that you have more than twice as many taste buds as the average person. And so everything was amplified for her. So she really could taste things at a very high level. And I think that’s one of the reasons we did so well. Is she.

Dr. Haley: That’s a really interesting thing.

Ron Russell: Yeah.

Dr. Haley: And I want to interrupt you again and sidetrack just a little bit here. Sure. Because again I hear these things and it’s like, I don’t know, could that really be true? Can we really make a vegan gourmet meal in 15 minutes? Can you describe preparation? What you might make gourmet in 15 minutes.

Ron Russell: So gourmet tasting. I’ll emphasize I’m not going to do fancy plating in 15 minutes, but like a bowl that tastes amazing, full of flavor. And you really enjoy it like it’s, one of the best meals you’ve had all month, let’s say. So the quick way, I’ll give the shorthand. There’s other there’s lots of dishes you can make quickly, but a shorthand is I do a lot of bowls for myself. I’m single and I don’t want to do too much cooking. So I’ll do a bowl and, I’ll add the healthy things in there. So let’s say it’ll be broccoli, lentils, maybe a little quinoa, maybe a little bit of sweet potato, which is also the low glycemic way to get potatoes rather than russet.

Ron Russell: And that’s pretty boring. But if you make a good sauce it tastes great. So, the key kind of is knowing how to make a quick sauce. An example of a quick sauce would be, let’s say I have white beans made. Put them in the blender. Put in some lemon juice, some garlic, and you have a lemon garlic cream sauce without any extra fat. Because the beans work nicely as a creaming agent. You can also use white sweet potatoes. You have them cooked, put them in a blender, add a little water and whatever flavoring you want. You could make a pesto.

Ron Russell: You could make. I tend to use pumpkin seeds rather than pine nuts in my pesto because they’re a lot cheaper and they’re also healthier. So or I’ll sometimes mix, Pumpkin seeds with, let’s say, cashews, which are very creamy nut and don’t have a lot of flavor. So they blend into a sauce very nicely. So those are some quick examples of how you can make kind of any dish sing with a nice sauce.

Dr. Haley: What would be your go to spices flavors to add to those for you?

Ron Russell: Well, I almost always put some kind of acidity.

Dr. Haley: So you mentioned lemon.

Ron Russell: Lemon juice. Lime juice. Vinegars. My favorite is balsamic vinegar. So those three give a lot of flavor to a dish. And with those three, you get three very distinct flavors going. So that’s one part as far as spices of course garlic and onion are I don’t know how Buddhist monks do it. They don’t eat garlic and onion. And I would feel deprived if I couldn’t. So I’m not going to be a Buddhist monk anytime soon, probably because of that one dietary requirement. So those are go to. I love, onion powder. Not just fresh onion, but onion powder has a whole distinctive, almost smoked flavor.

Ron Russell: And speaking of smoked, my single favorite spice is smoked paprika. I think it adds such a beautiful, intricate, interesting flavor. Almost like a barbecue flavor to whatever you add it to. Sure, it doesn’t work with everything, but, it’s one of my favorites. Go to. Well.

Dr. Haley: I think that is an ingredient in barbecue sauce or Chipotle or something like that. Right.

Ron Russell: So yeah.

Dr. Haley: It would make sense.

Ron Russell: So those are the things that, for quick easy. We’re not doing a cooking show here. But those are the things that you can make things taste very tasty using those kind of ideas.

Dr. Haley: And I like it just think of the sauce. I’m confident that people got some ideas there for me. The one thing I just took home from that was, well, you have some prepared beans, blend them up and make that kind of the base. I never thought of that before.

Ron Russell: And then you don’t have all that added because most sauces have tons of fat. They’re like cream based or, oil based and. Well, there’s.

Dr. Haley: I personally like that. Yeah.

Ron Russell: Well.

Dr. Haley: I might take your sauce and I might pour some olive oil in it.

Ron Russell: Yeah. Well, olive oil is kind of the one exception. And a lot of oil is overused, number one. And if you use the wrong kind of oil, it’s not even healthy. Fortunately, extra virgin olive oil is a lot of evidence showing that it’s very healthy. So adding a little olive oil extra virgin though really can, be healthy for you and also make it nice sensation in your mouth. So that’s kind of the exception. But you wouldn’t cook with olive oil. I use it as a finishing oil Or, if I’m going to make the sauce, I would cook the sauce first and then add some olive oil and blend it in and then pour it on rather than cook with it.

Dr. Haley: Yeah. I mentioned my hummus recipe earlier, but olive oil is my top it off final ingredient that adds the satisfaction to it. And a little bit of that little bit of bite, of a cough factor from a good olive oil.

Ron Russell: A good olive oil also has almost a nutty flavor to it. When it’s really thick and green, you get a little bit of a nutty after flavor with it, which is very nice. So yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Haley: Well that was a great little segment there. I think some people have some definite, good ideas on how they could change their diets. Yeah, but there’s more to longevity than what we put in our face. What are some other things we want to consider?

Ron Russell: Well, I consider there to be three main pillars and maybe a fourth, depending on where you put it. So the other ones that are equally important, and I’ve come to realize how important they are, because I came out of the nutritional world, I kind of focused on that. But movement and strength training is just as important to longevity. So when I say movement, you can kind of do any kind of movement and get benefit from it. An example, let’s go back to make sure you do things you want to do. Let’s say you hate running. Well don’t run. Get into the walking habit or bicycling habit or stationary bike or a rebounder while you’re watching TV.

Ron Russell: A little trampoline that you jump up and down on. Anything that gets you moving is going to make a big difference. There’s tons of evidence that’s a big part of longevity. And usually the societies that do well are the ones that typically don’t use cars that often. They walk everywhere. So I’ve made it my habit especially. I’m living in Barcelona now. It’s so easy because everything feels like it’s a mile away or less. So it’s like no big deal to walk everywhere. And so I since I’ve been here, I think I’ve used a car once.

Dr. Haley: I’m thinking about it the other day because, well, why not bicycle. It’s crazy. No one bicycles anymore? Yeah. All of the bikes have a little power lever on them now.

Ron Russell: Oh, right. Yeah. Electric bikes? Yeah. That’s sad.

Dr. Haley: We’re just going further and further away from real health.

Ron Russell: Well, here’s something I do on my habit stacking for that category. I find ways to incorporate it into my everyday life. As an example, I come to an escalator. There’s usually stairs next to the escalator, so I take the stairs. Or instead of an elevator, I take the stairs. So I get, my heart pumping a little bit. And it’s just a natural thing that I incorporate it into my everyday life. One of the things that used to drive me crazy when I was doing the cooking classes and wellness classes, people would say, well, I work out an hour and a half a day.

Ron Russell: Oh that’s great. What do you do the rest of the day? Oh, I sit in front of a computer for ten hours straight. Well, you just kind of ruin your workout if you’re just that sedentary. It’s just not doing good things for many parts of your body, not the least of which is your blood flow, which is, I think, kind of an under appreciated part of longevity. To have health, you need healthy blood with healthy blood flow. If you don’t have that, I guarantee you’re not a healthy person. And one of the ways you get that is movement throughout the day.

Ron Russell: It’s not just a one time in the morning and you’re done. So if you do a lot of computer work, set an alarm to start with. Every hour you’re going to get up. What I do is I’ll get up, I’ll do a swimming motion which kind of loosens up my shoulders and neck, or I’ll do a rowing motion kind of the same thing. I’ll just walk around. I’ll maybe take a quick walk, once around the block, just get the blood flowing a little bit and then back to work, if that’s what I’m doing at that point. So just find ways to incorporate it in your life.

Ron Russell: And then related to that is strength training. This is one I think a lot of people especially, I’m going to say a lot of women often don’t do strength training. I think more men tend to do strength training. And strength training is one of the major indicators of longevity because, we hear about the person that breaks their hip and then fast decline. And we need strength training to have balance. And many other aspects of our physiology is related to our muscle mass. So I go to the gym usually five times a week. If you hate the gym again, don’t go but get some of the bands.

Ron Russell: They have the bands for. So inexpensive now, you just sit in front of the TV and you work out with the bands, going different directions. So you work different muscle groups. Or one of my customers at my restaurant for many years, he probably was there five times a week for probably seven years. And he had this amazing physique. And one time I was asking him, like, how often do you go to the gym? And he said, I’ve never been to a gym. And I was like, what? Like, you’re, one of the best, physiques I’ve ever seen. He said, I just use natural stuff.

Ron Russell: So he does. He does a lot. I think he said he did 250 push-ups a day, 200 lunges a day and 200 sit-ups a day. But that’s it. So you can do that. You can get some barbells, a lot of different things you can do, and you can do it from home. Or, even if you’re in a chair with an armrest, you can pull yourself up from the armrest and hold or go up and down, or there’s a lot of different ways you can find ways to do some kind of strength training. And there’s two interesting actual longevity indicators. This is on my website, longevityvisa.com that give you some idea of how well you’re doing.

Ron Russell: Below 40 it’s going to be fairly easy, but the older you get these become more difficult. One is standing on one foot. How long can you stand on a single foot without any bracing on the walls or whatever? A good number, let’s say over 60. If you’re over 60, if you can do it a minute, you’re doing pretty good. You’re probably in the top 20 or 10% of people. Most people can’t do over a minute if they’re that age. If 50, you should be able to do 90s kind of thing. The other indicator is how long can you hang from a bar?

Ron Russell: Like, you don’t have to do a pull up, but can you hang from a bar for a minute or two? That.

Dr. Haley: Looks a lot easier than it is.

Ron Russell: It is. It definitely can be. So those are quick indicators to give you some idea of how you’re doing. And by the way, on my website, there’s an actual longevity test that goes through kind of all the different habits that have been proven to, increase your age and those that don’t. For instance, smoking takes a full decade off your life. Ten years you lose by smoking. So, the cool thing about the test is it gives you an indication of where your weaknesses may be. It asks questions about, all the different aspects of longevity. And so, maybe you think you’re doing great on nutrition and you probably are, but and you’re doing pretty good on movement, but maybe on, mind-body, you have all sorts of issues.

Ron Russell: You got too much stress in your life. You don’t sleep well. You have a poor attitude on life. Those are all just as important as the other aspects.

Dr. Haley: That assessment is at. What’s the web address.

Ron Russell: Longevityvisa.com And there’s a link right at the top for the test. If you want to take the test and see where you are.

Dr. Haley: And I like the fact that you mentioned that it includes, the mental as well.

Ron Russell: Yes.

Dr. Haley: And I think it’s.

Ron Russell: Really I didn’t realize how important that was initially. But over the years I’ve come to realize how vital it is.

Dr. Haley: There’s an old proverb that says something like A joyful heart is like a good cure or a good medicine, but a poor spirit rots the bones or dries the bones. And if you think about what’s that, drying the bones, well, it’s kind of like accelerated aging.

Ron Russell: It totally is. Completely. So I’ll give you an example. Let’s say your nutrition is really strong. You work out, you walk, and then you just have an anger always boiling in you. And, you don’t see, much positive in life and everybody’s against you or whatever your attitude is. If you have that negative framing, I don’t care how good your diet is and your workout is, you’re not going to number one. You’re not going to be happy. That’s the first thing. And number two, that’s going to counteract a lot of your positive other areas. So your life outlook is vital. And the single biggest thing that changed my outlook because I used to have kind of a negative outlook a lot of the time.

Ron Russell: But I had a girlfriend who gave me a book called gratitude. And, at first I just like I read it and I did a journal and I did my three things I’m grateful for that day. And it was very by rote. I didn’t think much of it, but again, it became a habit. It’s kind of fake it till you make it kind of thing. So I did it and I kind of reluctantly did it, but I did it because I thought she was right. I needed to change my attitude. And after, I don’t know, a year and a half a long time, it suddenly clicked in.

Ron Russell: And now I don’t even take the journal anymore because everywhere I look, I’m grateful. We don’t realize how wonderful life is. In my opinion. Most people don’t. We’re caught up in the news and the divisiveness and the, all these problems. And. Yeah, I’m not saying, Pollyanna, that we don’t have problems, but think of all the things we’ve overcome. The average person now lives way better than a king did 2 or 300 years ago. We have air conditioning. We have any food, cuisine we want. If we live in a major city, you can go get Ethiopian food and Middle Eastern food and whatever you want.

Ron Russell: Oh.

Dr. Haley: You don’t have to go get it. They’ll bring it to you.

Ron Russell: Yeah, they’ll bring it to you. You can listen to any piece of music ever written, any moment of any day that you want. You can watch movies the same way If you get pneumonia, you can get antibiotics. King didn’t have that two or three hundred years ago. So we live. We have hot water. You can go on and on and on this list of gratitude. And in my opinion, even if you want to, let’s say you’re really big on changing the world, you’re not going to change anything if you have a negative attitude. In my opinion, you have to have the strength, the inner strength to be happy but want to develop it more.

Ron Russell: That will give you more energy. It’ll give you, greater health. Etc. Etc. A better, clearer mind. You’ll sleep better on and on. So in my opinion, that’s maybe the single most important, because it’ll help you do all the other things. Like if you just do nutrition and don’t work on the mind-body, ultimately it will take you down. But if you do the mind-body, you’ll want to do the other things. So I think that’s the single biggest trick.

Dr. Haley: Yeah, I’m going to agree with you because as we talk about diet and well, diet is really nutrition and nutrition is really your chemistry. And there’s more things that affect your chemistry than what you eat, how you think affects your chemistry so powerfully. And then the other thing that you mentioned, you said, well, when this is better, you sleep better. Sleep affects your chemistry. It all affects your chemistry, the movement, the exercise affects your chemistry. And, they all work together. When you’re exercising well, you’re sleeping better and your mind is better. They all work together.

Ron Russell: Well, along those lines, Bryan Johnson, who’s famous now for being, he got wealthy and now he’s doing all this biohacking for longevity, which is great. And people seem to be wanting the quick fix. But even he and Dr. Sinclair, who I mentioned earlier, they both say you have to have the fundamentals first. Like you can’t just biohack and expect it to work. If your diet is awful and you’re not getting sleep and all those things, that’s your base. And that will make the biggest difference even more than the biohacking anyway. So you got to get that under control. And for those that are having sleep issues.

Ron Russell: It’s about what they call sleep hygiene can make a huge difference. So there’s protocols of how you get better sleep. Real quickly. Roughly. Go to bed. Same time every night. Get enough exercise during the day and up until early evening. You want to keep having movement? You want to completely dark room. So blackout curtains are great. One thing I didn’t even realize until relatively recently. About eight months ago, I noticed, like, okay, I got blackout room, and then I suddenly noticed how, my gosh, I have all these red LED lights. One for the TV, one for the thermostat. There were like, two others, like one for the.

Dr. Haley: Smoke detector.

Ron Russell: The oven. Yeah, the smoke detector. It’s like I’ve got all these lights and it did affect once I covered them, I notice even though I don’t have problems sleeping, I slept deeper because those lights weren’t kind of interrupting my flow. You don’t want to eat too close to sleep time. You want a slightly cooler room? You don’t want a warm room? Maybe in winter, you do. But, for the most part, you want a slightly cooler room than you normally are going to be in. So those are some of the ways that you can improve your sleep. And then of course, there’s things like melatonin.

Ron Russell: But I think we all kind of know about those things now. And then the other thing in the mind-body is stress management. Do you have a bunch of stress in your life? One of the things I think I’ve come across multiple friends that have this issue where they’ve lost someone, whether it’s a boyfriend, girlfriend, father, mother, friend, whatever it is. And it really spins them out of control. Here’s my take on that. I’m not saying it’s not tough, but my take. I lost a friend not too long ago. About five years ago, he was only 42, and he was one of the most charming people I’ve ever met.

Ron Russell: We’d go double dating and he’d just have the whole room like, charmed by, his stories and different things he would do. He always had something funny in his pocket. He’d pull out some crazy thing from his pocket and, it was always fun to see. What? What silliness he had that day. So, the way I have come to deal with it wasn’t always like this. I used to really, be upset. I go through. It’s kind of related to gratitude. It’s like, am I glad that I knew this person? And the answer is always yes, because these are the important people to me.

Ron Russell: And would I have rather not known them? And the answer is always no, I feel lucky that I have got to experience David, and so I feel lucky in that and yes, I’ve lost him and that’s not fun. But I focus on the gratitude part. Like, I got to know somebody incredible. And then I also think of it as it’s a transitory world. Everything is going to change. Everyone’s going to go away. You have to just accept that. And for me, I hope it is for other people. That’s just an acceptance. A lot of these things, especially in the mind-body, is just choosing to be healthy, choosing.

Ron Russell: Once you make a choice, like when I chose to be vegan, it was an overnight lightbulb moment. I said, okay, that’s not food. I made that choice and I never had to think about it again. So, I find that making choices, hard, firm choices. I want to get healthier. And start with one small thing in each of the categories. The mind-body, one in the movement strength and one in the nutrition. Start with one in each. Nothing too big. And then habit stack. Okay, I’m eating blueberries every day. Now I’m going to add matcha. Now I’m going to add more greens.

Ron Russell: That kind of thing. You don’t have to do it all at once. Some people love to do that, but most people, it’s a little too much. Yeah.

Dr. Haley: Well, you mentioned you have a spreadsheet. Do you recommend having some kind of written form for that?

Ron Russell: I find it helpful because I’ll forget I have so many on my list. I’ll sometimes forget about,. Oh yeah, I forgot I was doing this and why did I stop? Oh, like I couldn’t buy it or something at that moment. So like other things on my nutrition, one that goes off and on depending on availability is pomegranate juice, I think it’s super healthy for you, but it’s hard to find. So when I lived in Bangkok, it was right on the street corner. I just walked downstairs and like local vendors, juiced it like a few hours before and you could buy it fresh right on the corner.

Ron Russell: Now I have yet to find it in Barcelona. Maybe somebody has it, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. So that’s an example of, one that’s on my list, but I can’t always do it. The other ones I find a way to do it. Now, what I may do is buy pomegranate powder. It’s not as good, but, it’s better than nothing. So sometimes you have to kind of make those, compromises because you just don’t have the option.

Dr. Haley: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Ron, I really enjoyed the discussion. We do have to wrap up the time constraints, but is there anything that I should have asked you that I left out some, important word for the audience?

Ron Russell: Well, if you want more ideas of super healthy things you can do and things you can cut out, you can go to my website, longevityvisa.com there’s the 50 best return on investment ones. I’m actually going to update it currently in the next week. As you do research you start finding better and better options for every aspect. But if I were going to do something and you maybe are not in a healthy place at this point, I would start with dark leafy greens, simple things you can do, get rid of 1 or 2 of the negative habits, like fried food or soft drinks, or sugary items.

Ron Russell: Sugar is one of the most deadly things for longevity you can do. Then I would find a way to do more movement and strength and just work on—for me, it was gratitude was kind of the big breakthrough in mind-body, but maybe yours. You’re having more problem with sleep or something. So just take it seriously and, try and figure out the ways to improve that weak link that you have. If you start simple like that’s like taking half an hour to assess where you are. It’s not a big deal. And you can very quickly make some really positive changes and reverse diseases, even if you really, put your mind to it.

Ron Russell: So I’ve seen so many people overcome heart disease and diabetes and even cancer with these categories. So, you can do some amazing things and the nice thing is you’ll feel better very quickly, less than a month. Often within a week you’ll feel better. And that will encourage you to do even more. So it’s the biggest thing is start with a couple simple things you can do.

Dr. Haley: I like it. And one thing that just stood out you can feel better in a month. Okay. Yeah. All right. Let’s do this now. People that want more Ronald Russell in their life. I suppose you have a newsletter.

Ron Russell: Yeah. If you go to the website longevityvisa.com there’s a box at the top or at the bottom. Now I forget where, but you’ll find it on the front page. And then I’m on Instagram. Longevity Visa on Instagram if you want more recipes I have a lot of recipes on that site. And then I have a YouTube channel also called Longevity Visa. And then you can get the book on Amazon. And I also have a longevity reset kit, which if you want to go, if you’re really gung ho and you really want to make progress quickly, it has ten modules and like what to put in your pantry.

Ron Russell: And focusing on all these different aspects. It has worksheets and it has a spreadsheet with like 110 possible habits you could make. And then you just choose which ones sound right for you. And then, so it’s a little more in-depth. But the book also has a lot of information we didn’t cover, like gut health and anti-inflammatory diet overall and, fasting, the benefits of fasting and a lot of different things so that we didn’t get time to.

Dr. Haley: Yeah. Time flies.

Ron Russell: Yeah. It does.

Dr. Haley: I could talk to you for hours. I really enjoyed the conversation. I want to thank you so much. And for the people that are listening, there were a lot of resources that were mentioned. I will have links to them in the description below the video. If you’re consuming this on iTunes, I’ll have it there where you probably have to copy and paste it, or on Spotify or wherever you are, or if you’re on drhaley.com on the actual blog page, everything will be clickable to all the resources that were mentioned. So Ron, thank you so much. This was great.

Ron Russell: Thanks so much for having me on Dr. Haley. It was really a lot of fun.

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