The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Mari has grown her to fitness and nutrition brand. Co-founder of Bloom Nutrition. Forbes 30 under 30 list. A successful entrepreneur. Someone who has lost 90 pounds. Today's guest is Mari Llewellyn. Mari Llewellyn. My friend Mari. Welcome to the pursuit of wellness.
Hi guys, welcome back to the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. I apologize if I sound under the weather. I'm just like losing my voice slightly. So bear with me. Today is an amazing episode. I am talking to Mark and Carrie Sisson. I feel lucky that I got both of them because generally just Mark does podcasts, but I managed to get his wife Carrie, who I feel like is such a great example for us pal girls. She is like
beautiful and strong and she's 68 years old and I'm just obsessed with these two. If you don't know, Mark is the founder of Primal Kitchen. Think about the paleo ketchup, the mustard, the condiments, pretty much everyone has Primal Kitchen in their fridge. He's also a prior Ironman and triathlete and he's now onto his next venture, Paloova Footwear. He's
For context, Mark is 17, Carrie is 68 years old. And when I tell you guys, these are the most fit, healthy, attractive people I've ever seen. And you can tell that they are truly in love and having so much fun in their marriage.
It's the perfect example for anyone who is in a long-term relationship right now. I feel like they're people we can all learn so much from. They are having so much fun and enjoying life past age 60, which is so inspirational. A few things we're going to talk about today, how Mark and Carrie got into health and wellness and how they met.
Mark and Carrie's fitness routine and their workout plan, weightlifting and building a butt, what Mark and Carrie eat, two meals a day and intermittent fasting, their take on veganism, what stress does to you and orthorexic eating, making working out and eating well fun, why eating and drinking abroad is so much better and the difference between gluten in the US and also wine. We specifically talk about dry farm wines, which you guys know I love.
how health and wellness has improved their marriage, the story behind Primal Kitchen, and the tunnel vision you need while launching and managing a brand, how to handle being in a relationship with someone who is following their dreams and building a company and how to support them. This was really big for me, guys. I know it's a little bit niche, but if you have a partner who is really, really involved in their work, just how to get through that, that was very useful for me.
new shoe company and reinventing footwear from the ground up and why foot health is so important. We don't talk about that enough. The irony in the running shoe industry, stem cells and peptides, colonization,
cold plunging and is it possible to overdo it, aging hacks, sleep and basically how to be fit and healthy in your 60s and 70s. So without further ado, let's hop into this episode with Mark and Carrie. Reminder to please leave a review. Don't forget to subscribe and follow the podcast. I really appreciate your guys' engagement and feedback. It helps me grow the show. Without further ado, let's hop right in.
Okay, guys, today on the show, we have Mark and Carrie Sisson. Guys, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Thank you. I am honored to have you today. As you know, my husband and I are also entrepreneurs in the wellness space. So we greatly admire both of you and everything you've done. We're huge fans of Primal Kitchen. We've been using the ketchup, mustard and mayo for years and years and years. And we're going to be talking about how to make a better
And now you're onto your next venture, a shoe company called Paloova, which I am wearing right now. Yes, you are. I'm feeling very grounded. I'm feeling very comfortable, ready to take on the world. You've both written books and you've been shaking up the world of health and fitness for over 20 years, which is incredible. So I'd love to start by just hearing about how you both initially got into health and wellness.
Well, you know, we grew up in separate parts of the country. I grew up in Maine in a small fishing village and found it easier to run to school than to take the bus. So I started running in my teens.
Around that time, there was a great hue and cry about cardio being wonderful for the heart and the more running you did, the longer you'd live. So I sort of was into that in my teens. So I became a runner. I became an endurance athlete. And my pursuit of wellness was parallel to my pursuit of performance. And as the years went on, I studied biology. I got a degree in biology and I was pre-med in college.
I continued to run at a high level for a few years after I got out of college. I was a marathon runner, fairly accomplished, went on to do triathlons. But I got injured. I got injured from the amount of training. I got injured from the – somewhat from the diet. We found out later that the highly inflammatory diet that I was engaged in trying to cram down 6,000 calories a day was not serving me well.
So I kind of rededicated my life to finding ways to be lean and strong and fit and happy and healthy without the struggle and the sacrifice and the endurance pain and managing all the discomfort in ways that were more enjoyable. So my path has been to find ways in which we can, any of us, not just athletes, but any of us can achieve wellness and fitness
by figuring out ways in which our genes can turn on or off and express themselves in a way that manifests stronger, leaner muscles, more robust immune system, and not gain fat over time and not have pain. And so my whole, my life's work has really been about discovering these hidden genetic switches that we all have.
that we can turn on based on the behaviors that we engage in. So that's my basic backstory. And then I'll let Carrie sort of talk about how she got into that and then how we met through fitness. You met through fitness, okay. My father was a coach, so I grew up being active, swimming, tennis, skiing, then eventually snowboarding with Mark. Just active my entire life, then into 10Ks.
And then into the gym and yoga and Pilates and a number of things. And then we ended up meeting at the gym in our, wow, 30s. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah. 35 years ago. I feel like that's a sign for anyone listening who's single and into health and fitness. The gym is such a good place to meet people, in my opinion. Because then that you have like-minded values, same mindset. And you guys have been together for how long?
35 years. I mean, that's incredible. And also, can I say your ages? Sure. Okay. So Mark is 70 and Carrie is 68. And when I tell you these are the most attractive fit people I've ever seen. So everyone should be taking their advice right now. Thank you. And that's amazing. So current day fitness, do you guys overlap and enjoy it together? Or do you kind of have your own individual routines? We overlap for a minute.
We like to ride fat tire bikes on the sand. That's something we do together. And actually we did a lot of walking, type walking, hiking, especially this summer together in France. And I see us doing that more in Miami now that you're walking more. Yeah. But I have a trainer in the gym three days a week. I once in a while do Pilates. I try and do yoga a couple days a week. I have someone that actually stretches me because I had a goal to do the splits.
which I've never done. And I did do, I have done them now. So I have someone stretch me a couple of days a week. And then I do a lot of, you know, we'll bike on maybe once a week and then I'll run, you know, jog on the more sprints actually on the treadmill or walk on the beach. I'm doing something an hour or two every day. Yeah. And with the trainer, you're doing weights. Yeah. Just heavy weights. I love the variety you have. I feel like that keeps it really fun. I actually went on a, uh,
lift as heavy as I can, reach goals and build a butt, eat 140 grams of protein a day and...
That was amazing because I actually saw results. Yeah. It was exciting because I never really had a butt. I feel like when you're tall, it tends to go to the quads for me anyway. And I know you guys live in Miami, which is like the BBL capital of the world. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So to do it the natural way is amazing. No, and she, I mean, it was amazing because this was like starting two years ago. She just said, she set a goal that she wanted that. And she, you know, it took...
not just the discipline of the working out, but eating, taking in 140 grams of protein a day is- Not easy. It's not easy. And especially if you're trying to, you know, maintain the rest of your body and not get bloated or feel uncomfortable because of the amount of food you're taking in. So it was, it really worked well. And then having created it, it stayed. So, you know, it's a great thing. I just want to make a point that
You know, it sounds like she's doing a lot of work in the gym. When you're over 40, that's your primary job is to stay fit. You know, you may go to work. You may have a family that you take care of. Your primary job is
is to be healthy and to stay fit. And as you get older, it becomes more and more important. You know, we know all these people who are age who spend half the week going to doctor's appointments because they overlooked this for so long. And now it's, you know, biting them in the butt.
It is that time of year, this holiday season. I want to give a gift to my loved ones that makes them feel super special and unique, just like the relationship we share. And that's why I'm giving everyone I care about story worth. I think individualized and personal gifts are just so special and so much better than like shooting over a gift card. We all know that's the lazy way. And I think it's a great way to give a gift to your loved ones.
StoryWorth is an online service that helps you and your loved ones preserve precious memories and stories for years to come. It is a thoughtful and meaningful gift that connects you to those who matter most.
Every week, StoryWorth emails your relative or friend a thought-provoking question of your choice from their vast pool of possible options. Each unique prompt asks questions you'd never think to ask, like, what's the bravest thing you've ever done in your life? Or if you could see into the future, what would you want to find out? After one year, StoryWorth will compile all your loved one's stories, including photos, into a beautiful keepsake book that you'll be able to share and revisit for generations to come.
I think this is so cute and special. I would love to do this with feet, for example. We've been through so much together. And if we'd had this, we'd have the most beautiful, exciting book to look back on right now. So I highly plan on implementing this soon just so we can see everything we've accomplished. Reading the weekly stories helps you connect with loved ones no matter what and how far you are apart. I think this would be the perfect thing for me because I have so many family members in the UK. And I think this would be so special. With
With StoryWorth, I'm giving those I love most a thoughtful personal gift from the heart and preserving their memories and stories for years to come. Go to storyworth.com slash pow and save $10 on your first purchase. That's storyworth.com slash pow to save $10 on your first purchase.
I feel like we are all on the go for the holidays. I'm flying back to New York soon. Everyone's all over the place. And I personally like to arrive fresh when I get off the plane, whether someone's picking you up or you're headed straight to your family's house.
I like to travel feeling like I have a good toothpaste option. And that's where I found Bite Toothpaste. Plus, I love the fact that it has clean ingredients. You guys know how important clean ingredients are to me. Did you know we swallow about 5% to 7% of our toothpaste daily?
every single time we brush our teeth and most commercial toothpastes are filled with harsh chemicals, artificial flavors and preservatives, not things you want to be putting in your mouth. And that's why Bite makes dry toothpaste tablets made with clean ingredients that are sulfate-free, palm oil-free and glycerin-free. I love the fact that the Bite toothpaste bits are so convenient. You just pop a bit in your mouth, chew it up and start brushing. There's no plastic tube, no messy paste. It's
It's like a little bit of an interesting concept at first, but once you get used to it, it is so, so much more convenient. And I feel really good about it. They come in refillable glass jars and send refills in compostable pouches. So it's better for our bodies and the earth. I feel like all of us should be using bite toothpaste at this point.
Plus the glass jars look so cute on your vanity or thrown in your purse. Bite is offering listeners 20% off your first order. Go to trybite.com slash pow or use code pow, P-O-W at checkout to claim this deal. That's T-R-Y-B-I-T-E dot com slash pow.
What do you guys feel like you are able to enjoy because of your health and fitness level at this age?
Everything. Everything. No, I mean, it's, you know, name something that we don't enjoy more as a result of being able to, whether it's traveling around the world and taking hikes up mountains, whether it's, you know, playing, rolling around on the floor with our grandchildren, literally roughhousing with four-year-olds and two-year-olds.
Whether it's just a feeling throughout the day of just feeling vital and robust rather than frail and decrepit, which is, again, if you're in your 30s, this is not an issue for you. But at some point, it does become something to think about in your life. I think it's so important. And I think...
A lot of people don't realize the benefits of weightlifting outside of the aesthetics of it because it helps with bone density. It helps with longevity. Have you guys always weightlifted? Or was it something that, I mean, for you, you incorporated it later on. Yeah. Carrie, how about you? I started in my early 20s. Okay. I was dating somebody at the time who was into weightlifting. So I just started and never stopped.
That's what happened to me with Greg. He was into weightlifting first and then he introduced- - Yeah, he's in great shape. - He's running around the office in a wife beater right now taking me. I have to remind him to put a shirt on. - Yeah. - He just like that's- - Why, if you look like that? You know?
I agree. Who's he dressing for? Talking to CEOs of GNC, I guess you can get away with the wife beater. Yeah. So what would you say your current diets are like? Do you have a label like keto or paleo where you kind of just eat whole nutrient dense foods? Well, I'm keto-ish. You know, I...
have been in this field for a long time and I've been through every version of every way of eating, including for a brief period of time, I tried going vegan. I had a girlfriend when I was in my 20s who was vegan and I had to sort of go along with that. And then I, you know, I was a pioneer in the paleo movement. So the Primal Blueprint, which is my first book, is all about eating real food, natural food,
avoiding industrial seed oils, avoiding sugar, avoiding sweetened beverages and pies, cakes, candies, cookies, and all of that. That's pretty much clear that everyone should refrain from a diet based on that sort of sugary stuff. And then I went, you know, then because the primal blueprint was so effective for me and I chased results and I chased performance my whole life, I thought, what's the next level? The next level was keto for me.
But keto didn't last long as a sustained way of living. It's a tool. And so I wrote a book called The Keto Reset Diet, which basically just incorporates keto as one strategy in resetting your metabolism so you have metabolic flexibility. Now, metabolic flexibility is really, that's the holy grail of every way of eating. Whatever you choose to do, if you can achieve metabolic flexibility, so you can derive energy from food,
fat stored on your body or the fat on your plate of food or the glucose in your bloodstream or the glycogen in your muscles or the glycogen in your liver or the amino acids that are circulating to create glucose or the ketones that are, you know, you have all these different substrates that you can call upon, but if you haven't trained your body to be able to be efficient at that, then you just burn sugar, you burn carbs your whole life and you never tap into this amazing energy storage form. So,
Having set that as a, having set the table as, you know, the history of my journey right now, and because I like to eat and I enjoy, I want to enjoy every bite of food I take in, I want to incorporate as many different
in a diet. So you could say, well, I was carnivore for a while and I'm largely carnivore now, but I don't eschew vegetables. I eat fewer of them now, but I still like the crunch of a salad. I still like, you know, sort of the savory of a broccoli dish that's been, you know, spiced up a certain way.
The main thing for me is I eat on a compressed eating window. Some people call it intermittent fasting, but it's just basically I don't eat until one o'clock in the afternoon. So I eat two meals a day and that seems to, you know, just sustain my energy and my immune system and mental clarity and it works for me.
I love that you mentioned that keto is a tool because I've done keto a few times. And I think a mistake I made in the past was doing it for too long. And I felt like it was affecting my performance in the gym. And I maybe had some gut issues because I did it for like three years at one point during my weight loss because I lost 90 pounds in 2017. Wow. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah.
I'll show you guys the before and after after this, but keto was a huge tool for me and helped me so much. And I always recommend it when someone's getting started or they're having brain fog. I really feel like it's amazing for inflammation, but as you said, isn't necessarily sustainable. Carrie, how about you? What's your diet like at the moment? Well, at the moment it's paleo, but when we met I was vegetarian and I was vegetarian for...
I don't know, now 10 years or something. And then I added in fish. And then it might be 10 years ago. Now I added in everything. But I would definitely say I'm more paleo than keto, wouldn't you? Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. What made you...
switch from vegetarian to eating everything? I actually had a dream. We were in Miami on vacation. There's this restaurant, Prime 112, and they have bacon sticks at the bar instead of a bowl of peanuts. I mean, bacon in cups. And I had a dream that I was eating this bacon in my dream and it tasted so good.
So we happened to go there that week for dinner and he said, you want to split a wedge salad? I'll get the bacon on the side. And I'm like, no, I'll have some bacon. And so I ate some and then a friend of ours was eating a Kobe hot dog. And I said, can I have a bite of that?
And all of a sudden it was so good. And he kept telling me, you need more protein, you need more protein. And it tasted so good. I never got sick. I never got a stomach ache, indigestion. I love it. And now I eat, well, a lot of protein. I wonder if that was your body's
signal to you in your dream of being like, hey, I need some meat. I know, me too. Could well be. Probably. Because I feel like suddenly people just, like one of my friends actually, she was vegan and she was like, my body just like needed it. Like all of a sudden she's craving it because I feel like on a primal level we kind of need meat. What are your guys' views on veganism? Look, I can't understand how vegans survive any
Any length of time, full stop. It makes no rational sense to me. God bless him for, you know, taking on whatever moralistic, you know, rationale for it. But in my estimation and from my study of the research and the literature and anthropology and every other aspect of science, you know, we've, humans evolved as humans
omnivores which with a large focus on meat animal protein so she was a vegetarian but she ate eggs and um and cheese dairy and dairy so she got protein even as a vegetarian the the vegan thing is just um i just i just don't get it are you a fan of paul saladino oh yeah paul's a good friend yeah i wrote the forward to his book oh really yeah oh that's amazing he came on the show yeah
He's awesome. When he did come on, I was struggling really badly with acne and he actually kind of helped me with that. And he was checking in on me and texting me, which was so sweet. The science he brought to the show was pretty staggering. And even when we talk about the morals of veganism, there's a lot of data coming out showing that even if you are living a vegan lifestyle, you're essentially killing maybe more. More sentient beasts, if you will. Right. So yeah, that's a...
age old debate and I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of comments on this but you know well you want to be controversial on the show Marcia laughing
You know, sometimes I feel like I do and sometimes I regret it because the comments are wild. But I think people just hold their lifestyle really close to them. No, it's... I get it. I mean, I get... This is a choice that people make and they need to defend for their own psyche that choice. But, you know, I see a lot of vegans who have those revelations that are basically, I'm craving something and there are far more...
ex-vegans who now eat meat than, you know, carnivores who went vegan. Greg and I essentially eat carnivore. I mean, he fully is carnivore. I have a little bit of carrots here and there, the salad I enjoy, but we mostly eat meat at the moment and I feel amazing. That was kind of how I cleared my skin was switching to pretty much carnivore, which is interesting because you, you know, a lot of people would assume the other way around, but. Our daughter did that. Really? She was, um,
I'd say she was paleo-ish. And she was breastfeeding her second child and he couldn't get rid of the gas and the bloating and he was so uncomfortable. So she's gone carnivore, ooh, a year, over a year. Over a year, yeah. Almost two years. And so nursing, he was 100% fine. Her stomach feels a lot better and she feels great.
And I raised them both vegetarian initially. And my son is still a vegetarian except for the occasional chicken. And my daughter, our daughter, our son. And then my parents, which is why I went vegetarian, are vegan and have been vegan for 40 years. My mom's 88. My dad's 91. They are 100% living alone, taking care of themselves. Those are the sorts of...
Again, when I say I don't, I can't figure out how they survive. And yet, you know, we have examples. Yeah. So, you know, you can't argue with personal success. There are these personal success stories, right? These anecdotes. But, you know, back to why I do what I do is I want to enjoy life and I want to, I want to have muscles. I want to, you know, her parents are both very thin, very, they're, they're frail. I mean, they're 90. I mean, it's like, you know, that's not going to not happen.
But I mean, when I'm 90, I want to be, you know, sprinting still and doing all that stuff. But I also want, I want to enjoy meals. I want to enjoy as large a variety of foods as makes sense in the context of what I'm trying to achieve with metabolic flexibility. So, you know, I happen to like the satiety, the satiation from fatty foods, you know, crunchy, salty, fatty, sweet. I want all those things.
I don't want to just be sort of stuck in a, in a rut of just, I can only eat within these very narrow guardrails. And if I go outside them, I'm only going to beat myself up for violating my principles. Right. Right. So I try to be as expansive as possible. Like,
The original Primal Blueprint, which was layered over the paleo diet, the paleo diet said you can't eat dairy, you can't have alcohol, so no wine, you can't have chocolate. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, hold up. Like some of these, I want to figure out things that we can eat in the context of our evolution, not food.
this proscriptive list of what we can't eat. So I discovered that dairy, which has been around for 10,000 years, actually it's been around for millions of years because, you know, other animals don't not eat the mammary glands of animals that they've killed. So it's not like you can't, you can justify somehow not eating dairy.
So I included dairy, cheese, butter in the primal blueprint. I included wine and chocolate. And like I wanted to say, tell me why I can't eat these and then we can have a discussion. And I also feel like when we're too strict with ourselves and living so rigid, it adds a layer of stress that ultimately makes you more unhealthy than you were to begin with.
Stress is a great, you know, it's a great eliminator of an immune system. It causes, you know, hormonal problems with a lot of people. Just the stress alone is a factor in a lot of people's lives. And when you layer on the worry about not adhering to a particular diet, this, you know, we used to call it orthorexic, you know, eating. You're so dogmatic about what you eat that you beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon. Right.
So, yeah, I just think I like to think in a much broader strategy about how can I create metabolic flexibility with a vegetarian diet or with carnivore diet or with a keto diet or with a low-carb
fat diet, but using other tools like intermittent fasting or long terms of fasting or adding in endurance exercise, high intensity exercise to exhaust the glycogen from the muscles. There are a number of ways to create this metabolic flexibility beyond just using keto as a strategy.
Okay, guys, you have heard me talk about my acne journey so many times at this point. I just had Emily Morrow on the show who actually does the lab panels for ClearStem. So she's really knowledgeable when it comes to the ins and outs of people with acne and what their lab work looks like. And I love the fact that ClearStem cares about that.
It is truly my favorite cleanser of all time. It's a revolutionary skincare brand that is both anti-aging and anti-acne with zero known hormone disruptors. And I love the fact that the founders are both in their 30s and extremely acne prone. So they get it and they made a non-toxic line that targets acne and wrinkles simultaneously. I know Danielle and Kaylee personally, they are lovely and so, so knowledgeable when it comes to acne products.
because they've been there and had acne themselves, I feel like they truly understand what their customers are looking for and what they need. After reviewing thousands of products over 10 years for her patients, Danielle knew nearly all of them contained poor clogging ingredients or toxic chemicals that disrupted their hormones. The
The formulas keep winning award after award and the hype is real. You need to try this line if you want anti-aging that won't break you out. My personal favorite product is the Enzyme Cleanser. It's so gentle on your skin. It's the orange colored container. That's how I tell it apart. And it's
It's my absolute favorite. I bring it everywhere with me and my husband Greg has even started using it. It's gentle and non-porklogging, but they have so many great products. Guys, the moisturizer is incredible. I also love their lip balm. You guys can visit clearstemskincare.com and use code POW, P-O-W for 15% off. That's clearstem.com and use code POW for 15% off your order.
It is that time of year, guys. Everyone is sick. Literally, I'm sick right now. You could probably hear it in my voice. Our entire office is sick. Greg is sick.
And I don't get sick often. And I'm definitely not someone who loves taking a lot of medication. I'm very, very conscious about what I put in my body. And that's where I found Boyron Cold Calm. Unlike conventional medications that mask symptoms, Cold Calm by Boyron works with your body to relieve symptoms throughout every stage of a cold from onset to resolution without causing drowsiness or drug interactions. It's made with pure ingredients,
Cold Calm tablets are phenethyrene free, gluten free, and don't contain artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors, or preservatives. I will say guys, that is surprisingly difficult to find. A lot of these cold cough syrups have sweeteners, have sugar, which it's like anti-productive. So I really appreciate that they do this.
Cold Calm's melt away tablets don't require water and are easy to take at the first sight of sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion or minor sore throat. Cold Calm's family friendly line of medicines include melt away tablets for ages four and up as well as pre-measured liquid doses for little ones
aged six months and older. You can visit BoyronUSA.com and use code POW at checkout for 20% off your purchase. Claims are based on traditional homeopathic practice, not accepted medical evidence, not FDA evaluated.
Visit BoyRunUSA.com and use code POW, P-O-W, at checkout for 20% off your purchase of any cold-car medicine. That's B-O-I-R-O-N-U-S-A.com. Use code POW for 20% off your purchase of any cold-car medicine. Pursuit of wellness, code POW. ♪
How do you guys go about finding that balance of, you know, eating really well and working out a ton and getting that exercise in, but also having fun at the same time? Like, where does the fun come into play?
Workouts are fun. And cooking dinner together, a healthy dinner together is fun. Yeah. Or finding fabulous restaurants around the world that are still healthy and interesting and taste good too. That's fun for me. I don't look at my workouts as not fun or drudgery. I train with girlfriends I love. I hire trainers I enjoy. I train with my husband sometimes.
That's part of my life that I actually really enjoy. So for the longest time, my workouts as an endurance athlete were around...
me going out alone and managing discomfort for two hours. Yeah. Right. It was about, um, running 10 miles or 15 miles or 25 miles. It was about riding for a hundred miles. It was, it was about being in the zone. It was about trying to, um, dig a hole for myself and go into the pain cave because, because the, the results from the training, which when you apply it to a race, you really have to dig deep in this, in this race. So,
Looking back on my career as an endurance athlete, I never had fun. It just wasn't fun. It was like some days I had, you know, I felt elated that it was over. I could, you know, have a beer at the end of a workout. But during the workouts, it was never really like, oh, my God, this is so fun. I got to do this more. So I shifted my workouts to sports.
that I enjoy, like I do stand-up paddling and I'm out in a bay in warm water in Miami with dolphins and manatees and
and, you know, seeing other people out there. And while I'm working relatively hard, I'm outside, I'm enjoying it. It's great. Kerry mentioned we do fat tire biking. So we have these fat tire bikes that we ride on the sand. So we don't ride on the road or on the bike path. We ride in the deep sand. And it's a...
On the one hand, it's a brutal workout. On the other hand, it's fun because you're always sort of being challenged just to stay upright on these things. Mine's electric to keep up with it. Yeah, she has an electric assist, but she still gets a great workout doing it. And we'll go together and we'll talk while we're doing it. So we'll have fun doing that. And even while I don't really enjoy the gym,
the actual workouts, it's cheers for me. It's my happy hour, right? It's I go to in-between sets to chat with people that I know there and people that I like at the gym. So it becomes a social break. And because I work, my whole life I've worked out of the house. I've never gone to an office. So I work alone during the daytime. So when I go to the gym, it is a social break for me. I love that. Yeah. That's fun. We go to Gold's Gym here in Venice and it's like...
social hour, but also very motivating because everyone's huge. So motivating. Have you guys been? Yeah. It's awesome, right? I mean, but the bodybuilders, I've had girlfriends who start going and they're terrified because they're like, oh my God, these guys are huge. But those are the sweetest guys. The scariest looking ones are always the nicest. I know you guys travel a decent amount. You love the South of France. I'm curious if you find that
because I find this, I can get away with eating a little bit more fun in France and still feel okay. And also more wine without the hangover. Do you find that? Yeah, for sure. I would say, you know, the wine thing, because I'm a big fan of wine and particularly red wine. There are different types of wine throughout the world. And the ones in the US are...
largely so processed, so full of added chemicals and things that make those wines taste and look somehow more robust. So I look for wines that have zero to no sugar, that have slightly lower alcohol, that have reduced tannins. Tannins are the things that cause the histamines to give you the puffiness and a hangover the next day. And most of the wines in France are
you know, they're dry farmed, right? They're not irrigated. They don't have the additives. They have all these regulations in the different regions that they must adhere to to maintain the quality of those French wines. So that's one of the reasons that you're able to handle that when you're in most of Europe in that regard. And then, you know, you've heard about the wheat, the
the types of wheat in Europe being not as aggressively gluten high as we have in the US. So you can have a slice or two of pizza or a piece of bread or something that maybe even a pastry without the consequences that you might have or I might have because I have a real issue with wheat in general and gluten in particular.
So, yeah. But I would say the other thing about us going to France is we don't rent a car when we're there. So we're there for a few months and we walk everywhere. We brought scooters this year because we want to get dressed up, you know, stand-up scooters. I love all the toys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the paddleboard, the bikes. No, for sure. We walk so much that we'll go to France and I will –
what I would consider overeating and lose three pounds every year. I feel like I got the most steps in France than I've ever gotten. I think I got like 30,000 one of the days. Wow. Because we did, there's like a little hike in...
on the cliff side and you go and find like a little beach and have a picnic there. And I got so many steps in on that hike, but it really is the most walkable, amazing place because you just find cafes and it's so cute. Have you guys heard of Dry Farm Wines, the company? If you go on their site, I'm their number one, first guy to kind of promote them. I was like, you have to be connected to them. No, no, no. That's what I, when I'm in the US, I'm a hundred percent on board. Yeah.
you know, I get a box a month and it's, those guys are great. Todd's one of my very good friends. Todd's awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just got two boxes for Thanksgiving because my dad's coming and he drinks so much wine. I'm the biggest fan of that brand and I bring them up on every episode. Oh, good. Well, I was going to mention them. I didn't, you know, want to step out of bounds here, but yeah, that's, they've identified, they changed how I view
drinking wine for sure. I can't even drink a US branded wine anymore. It tastes like cough syrup to me. I feel like a snob, but I won't do it. I went to Sonoma and they were serving wine, obviously that was grown on site. And I said, do you have any European wine? I've had, but you know, when you've tasted it and you know the difference and you want, you know, that certain thing. Yeah.
Do you guys feel like health and fitness has helped with your marriage? Because you've been married for a long time and you seem to be really healthy, happy, having fun. Do you think health and fitness has enhanced that or helped that? It's probably the most significant part. Wow. Yeah.
I mean, I don't want to get too much into detail, but, you know, I... No, but we, you know, we want to look great naked for each other. As a, you know, that's an important part of the marriage and the relationship. And, you know, so we've, you know, there's a vanity element of working out that translates directly into the marriage part. So... What are some tips you have? We're both so vain. We would work out hard regardless. Yeah.
I love the honesty. And you can enjoy it together and have the same energy levels because it would kind of suck if one person was super fit and healthy and raring to go and one wasn't. I think that's a big issue with a lot of marriages. Yeah. I think that's... So when I say, you know, once you're over 40, your main job is to stay fit. You know, there are a lot of component parts to that. One is just...
you know, to not have to go to the hospital and be involved in the medical system. But another is, you know, to be attractive to your partner, to other people. And it's, there's no reason that age should be one factor in just giving up and throwing in the towel and saying, well, that part of my life is over. Yeah. So. And do you guys have set date nights or anything like that? I mean, not really. We, look, we live, the kids are long gone out of the house.
You know, we go out to dinner in Miami, but I think we enjoy being home and making dinner at home and watching TV together more than some of these so-called date nights. That's where we're at too. Because when we had kids, then a date night was a big deal. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But when you don't have kids in the house anymore, every night's date night. So what do you want to do? Yeah.
That sounds fun. I'm excited for that era of my life. So were you guys together when you were building Primal Kitchen? Long before. Oh, yeah. So what was that experience like? Because I'm sure it was pretty intense.
I didn't like him. Okay. And what, cause you were so busy all the time? Yes. I was, I was head down, you know, tunnel vision focused on building this brand. And this goes back before Primal Kitchen. So I started, we got married in, in 1990. And within a few years, we had two kids and I started my first business in,
in 97 with no money in the bank, a wife and two children. And I started a supplement company. You know, that was stressful for me. And I built that business over a bunch of years. And then, you know, the evolution of my business is just full of pivots and changes in strategies. And when the supplement company
My business model, which was based on television appearances, stopped working. I shifted over to the internet and I started a blog called Mark's Daily Apple. And then I used that blog to sell my supplements. But over time, I realized that I was writing so much about diet and exercise and making your own healthy meals that the supplement part of what I was doing didn't really, it was a little bit of a disconnect. So then I said, and this was only in like 2008.
13 or 14 that I started thinking about Primal Kitchen. I said, well, I'm writing so much about food and how to prepare it and giving people recipes every week. And what if I just took those recipes and made actual products that were on store shelves that people would buy? And it was a kind of an aha moment for me. But again, I was so, I was really tunnel focused on this. So it was a
It was a bit of a strain on the marriage. Well, I have to say, first of all, Primal Kitchen was, as someone who was super into fitness back then, one of the first of its kind to me. I mean, you couldn't find ketchup that didn't have sugar in it. So that was like groundbreaking. And I still use it every single day. You can ask anyone in the room. I put ketchup on inappropriate things. But I feel like I relate a lot because I run this business with my husband, Greg, and he's very much in that tunnel vision moment.
right now. So it's tough. It's not easy. Do you have any advice for me? Oh God, of course I do. On how to get through this because there's no boundaries. Yeah. I wish I would have, being on the other side, I wish I would have seen it differently. You know, men are, especially a man that's in his healthy ego, they are focused on their career and their purpose. And
At the, you know, everything else, you know, they sacrifice or we, whatever, everything else doesn't really get any attention or we don't get any attention as children, mothers, parents. They're just so single focused. But I wish I'd been more supportive because instead of going, I'm not getting any attention, the kids and I are over here by ourselves or whatever I was doing, you know, looking back now.
I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I had just been supportive. You go do what you want to do. We'll take off and go over here. We'll see you later for dinner. Or just we'd sit down for a meal and his mind is over here. He's not even present. I mean, I learned early on.
do not go to lunch with him during the week because he's not present. So even now that he started this new company, some days I kind of, are you like here with me? Do you really want me to go to lunch? Because I don't want to go to lunch with you if your mind's over there. So I just, I would highly, highly, highly advise all women to just support their man and give them the space to just focus on their purpose.
and take care of the house and the family and know that they're, you know, that'll turn around because look at my life now. I was going to say it kind of sounds like your life now, you have everything that you wanted back then. So it was worth the wait. Yeah, he's present and loving and affectionate. And I mean, he's amazing. Biking on the beach. He's more than I ever dreamed of, you know, so unfortunately...
You just kind of need to get through that. That was a struggle for me and I would advise all women to just hang in there and be supportive. I appreciate that advice because I think it gives some perspective. I mean, it's really...
nice for me to see you guys because I feel like you're everything that I want to be with Greg, you know, in a few years time. And this moment that we're in right now together is really tough. And to have some perspective is really helpful because it kind of feels like it's never going to end, you know? No, it does in the moment feel like it's never going to end. I mean, we came, we came close to splitting up twice, like really close. And then getting back together, it, it got better.
So it's one of those things where I can see other couples who are like, you know what? It's been a nice ride. Let's just go our separate ways. Yeah. When in fact it's really – it's easy to make that choice and then it's really – we know a lot of people made that choice and regret it. So you got to – like working on it and making it, you know, as Carrie said, you know, just sort of from a woman's perspective, supporting –
supporting that process during that time with the faith and belief that it'll be, that it will be better on the other side, right? It'll be worth it. And as a, just as an entrepreneur, I tell people, as you're, as you're going through your journey as an entrepreneur, like I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up until I was 47. And then I changed my mind again when I was 61, you know? And so it only takes one like major success in a career to
To make everything you did, including all the mistakes, worth it. But you got to hang in there and you got to keep, stay focused on your purpose and stay focused on a goal. It doesn't mean you have to stick to the goal. You can change. You can pivot, which I've done many times. But always be working toward some end goal that if you do apply yourself and your gifts toward that,
I can almost guarantee that one day you'll look back and go, wow, look what we have now. Look what we've built. Look what we've done. Yeah. I think that's really helpful advice because a lot of people listening are in their 20s and maybe don't have it figured out. So I think it's nice to hear that perspective. And they say they want it by the time they're 30. Like I want to be this by the time I'm 30. Yeah.
I think there's a lot of pressure on social media to have the Lambeau and the Bel Air Mansion. And it's ridiculous because you got to live your life too. You can't just sacrifice everything.
And I'm not talking about sacrificing everything. I'm talking about you gotta live your life while you're building your business. Speaking of entrepreneurship. Yes. You are on your new venture. Yes. With Paloova. Right. So what inspired the shoe company I'm wearing right now? We actually, you and I are wearing. Yep. Guys, I'm really comfortable right now and I'm excited to train in these. So I've been in the health business my whole life and much of what I've done has been to explore new opportunities for people to enhance their health.
As a former runner who spent hours and hours on a daily basis in shoes,
I was never satisfied with the running shoes that I was wearing. I think part of my injuries that forced me to quit my elite career as a runner were as a result of the shoes I was wearing. I've never been a fan of leather street shoes and fashion wear. My feet are always cramped. I've always wanted to go barefoot whenever and wherever I could. After I sold Primal Kitchen and I had
a chance to reflect on what's next. What was next was addressing foot health, foot comfort, and footwear in a way that no one else has really done yet. So we decided, my son, who's my co-founder, and I decided to reinvent footwear from the ground up. And the understanding was that we wanted, first of all, to acknowledge that the more time you spend barefoot, the better off you are.
However, there's a world out there that's full of concrete and hardwood floors and glass and all manner of unnatural surfaces that we have to negotiate. So what sort of shoe could we build that would be, first of all, the most comfortable shoe you've ever worn? Number two, functional in that it would allow your feet, the muscles of your feet to move and rebuild comfortably.
And number three, be stylish. So comfort, function, style. The functional part of that, most people who are wearing shoes today will complain of foot pain at some point in their life, whether it's minor aches and pains or whether it's bunions or plantar fasciitis or neuromas.
And almost all of these are caused by the shape of the shoe that they're wearing. Most shoes will cramp your big toe all the way over and your little toe all the way over to get into this pointy end, which is completely unnatural. Yeah, what is that? It's just an artifact of centuries of footwear where initially the people who wore the pointy shoes were the aristocrats. Hmm.
And so the aristocrats were always trying to get the narrowest shoes possible and they didn't have to work. It was a sign of, you know, having bad feet was a sign of wealth, I guess. I don't have to stand on my feet, so. No, exactly. So over the years, style in footwear has sort of,
always come back to what's the point is shoe we can fit a woman's foot into. I mean, stiletto heels, right? I mean, women spend a lot of time wearing these incredibly uncomfortable shoes, but men as well, whether it's boots or whether it's, and now even in the running shoe industry, you might find a very wide middle part of the shoe, but then it still kind of comes to an end where the big toe is cramped in. So,
We wanted to create a five-toed shoe, a glove for the feet that allowed the toes to do what they're supposed to do, splay outward and articulate up and down. So every time you walk on any uneven surface, you should feel that on the bottom of your foot. It should not be protected by some thick, cushioned spade.
that negates all of this important information, you should in fact be feeling every bump on the road, every rock you step on. And it should immediately tell your brain how to bend the ankle, how to flex the knee, how to torque the hip and how to absorb the shock of that footfall. We are bipedal. We are on two feet. We spend...
our entire life, other than the times that we're sitting and lying down, upright, walking, moving, standing, squatting, all of these things, that why would you not want your feet to be as healthy as they possibly could be and be as comfortable and pain-free as they could be?
Do you feel like these sneakers that have gotten really popular, that are like really cushiony, you're basically an inch off the ground? That's more than an inch. No, you're four inches off the ground. You know the ones I mean, right? Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. Why, what's happened to society that we think that's better for foot health than this? Well, because first of all, most people don't know about foot health. They think in terms of comfort. And if your feet are hurting...
One of the things you can do is put a cushioned pillow underneath it, and now your feet don't hurt that much for that long. But what it does is it makes your knees hurt, your lower back hurt, your quads hurt. And so it bypasses all that important information, and it just –
The irony of the running shoe industry is that in 50 years of high-tech running shoes, there's no decrease in injuries. 50% of runners are injured at least once a year. At any point in time, 25% of all runners are injured right now. Again, 75% to 80% of people complain of foot pain in their lifetimes. Like we have access to all of this amazing technology. How come we haven't fixed it? Well, we haven't fixed it because we assume that –
It's like the medical industry, which doesn't address the root cause of problems. It just puts a bandaid on it, right? - I was gonna say this reminds me of the food industry, the medical industry. There's a lack of understanding that everything in the body is connected. - Everything's connected. And so if you have pain in your foot, yeah, if my podiatrist gives me an orthotic to put underneath my arch, 'cause my arch hurts, it'll feel good for a while. It doesn't fix the problem. And in fact, all it does is kick that can down the road.
So our perspective is we want to help people passively train their feet all day long. So when you wear these walking around, you're using the muscles of your feet that you haven't used before, but it's not like they're being stressed. You're walking. You're not running in them. I mean, you could, but we don't advise it. We say spend your day doing your errands, picking up
kids up at school, driving around town, if you work at a retail operation, standing on your feet or you're a nurse walking around all day, just use these to build back the muscles of your feet, to splay your toes outward, to give your big toe that circulation that it needs because when you push the big toe against the rest of the toes,
You lose circulation in your arch and that's what is a major cause of plantar fasciitis. It's not an inflammation so much as the death of the tissue from a lack of circulation. So we want to increase the circulation. We want to increase the mobility. We want to increase the agility, the resilience of the feet so that then when you put on your running shoes and go out to run, your feet will thank you for it. Then when you put on your soccer cleats and go play soccer or your basketball shoes and play basketball, you
you know, you'll be less uncomfortable and maybe stronger for having done that. It's interesting that we don't talk about foot health enough because I feel like no one brings this up, but we're literally on our feet the whole day. It's incredible because I think foot health is the new sleep. You know how sleep's been the topic for the last five years? Yeah. And everyone talks about it now? Yeah. And you know how I've sort of been on the leading edge of like, you know, high fat diets and, you know. You're spearheading the foot movement. So I really feel like it's
time to be aware of this incredible link that we have with earth, with the ground. And the fact that if we lose mobility, we lose one of the most important things
of enjoyment of life, right? Like what is a quality of life? It's being able to get around and move and go to travel around the world or go walk down the street and visit friends or go for a walk with people or go to the gym and work out. It all starts with the feet and your kinetic, the entire kinetic chain starts with the bottom of the feet. When you put on restrictive cushioned shoes,
You bypass all of that information and then you sort of start everything from the ankle up. So if you don't have strong ankles, if you don't have strong feet and you have these high shoes, now you step on a rock the wrong way and your ankle rolls because the brain has no information about how to offset that, how to bend the ankle, how to bend the knee, how to torque the hip, how to do all these things to absorb the shock. So, you know, my mission for Primal Kitchen was...
to change the way the world eats, right? And so my mission for Peluva is change the way the world walks. I think this is perfect timing because girls are obsessed with walking now. Yes. You've seen this, right? The trend is hot girl walks. Yeah, yeah. Suddenly we all rediscovered walking and how beneficial it is. So I feel like this is great timing. Carrie, when do you wear these? I saw on your Instagram, you wear them working out. I do. That's the only thing I wear to work out. But I'll wear them walking around. Like in France, every day we'd walk to lunch, we'd walk to dinner, whatever.
I even have some shots on my Instagram where I walked to lunch one day. And then when we got there, I put on some cute sandals because I was wearing a sundress. And then somebody actually commented on Instagram, you know, well, if you didn't wear your paloobas to lunch, we saw that you, you know, change or whatever. Don't say you did. But I did. I actually brought a tote, changed my shoes when I got there. And I did that at dinner sometimes. I would actually walk to dinner in my paloobas and then change into heels.
Smart.
I like that. Yeah. Which is, you know, one of those things that I don't think about, but all of the women in New York City who have walked to work, you know, walk, you know, a mile and a half to work up Manhattan, but have to wear more stylish, you know, footwear at work could carry paloovas in a handbag, you know, because so they could walk in to work in the paloovas and switch on. I mean, there are a lot of different variations here. And one of the things we did with paloova was we said, when you understand this, when you understand...
toe freedom and how, and how comfortable these are and how every time you take a step, there's a smile on your face because you're feeling the ground underneath you. And you sort of, wow, like I didn't realize that it's, that it's this way. We did a, we're in two running shoe stores now in Miami.
We did an event last week and we had 30 people try on the shoe and we went for a, it was called walk and wine and we had dry farm wines. And so we literally had people wear palovas for the first time and walk a mile and back and the entire walk, it's like, okay, go find an uneven surface and step on it, right? Step on the crack between these two sidewalk pieces or step on that rock over there or walk through the grass with it. And people were like, oh my God, I never, like in my regular shoes, I would be,
literally rolling my ankle stepping in this. And now it feels good. I feel I want to walk. Oh, that's so cool. That's like my dream event. So walk and wine. No, it was, it's incredible. So when you understand this, then you go, oh my God, now I got to go back to putting on regular shoes that I know are going to be uncomfortable. And that was my plight. Like I have good friends at On, right?
Running shoes. On's taken off. It's a big running shoe. I can't wear the shoes. I can't walk in them. If I walk a mile or two, my knees hurt. Greg said the same thing. Because the rolling part of it. He stopped wearing them. Yeah. And so we'll get Greg and stuff. Please. And I need some for my dad. Yeah, yeah. Because he has plantar... How do you say that? Plantar fasciitis. Yeah. I don't know how to say that, but... So now we make different styles. So we have a Napa leather, high quality leather lace up for the workplace. Wow. We have it in gray and brown and black. We have a desert boot. Yeah.
We have a loafer called the Miami, which is a slip-on for just, you know, kind of kicking around during the day. That's sort of my day shoe. We're introducing one called the Zen, which is kind of a house shoe. It's got a quilted look to it. Oh, cool. It's almost like a slipper, but you can wear it
My son wore it playing golf the other day and said he had a great time. I feel like that would be a good golf shoe because golf, you're walking a ton. Yeah, you're walking a ton, but we're making a golf shoe. The golf shoes need a little bit more traction underneath. It's a little bit of a spiky thing to be able to grip the ground. So we're working on that. But for now, these are minimalist shoes in that the one you're wearing, the Strand, even though it looks like it has kind of a thicker outside material,
So it's nine millimeters total thickness. So it's just enough to give you a cushion so that if you, like I can walk 10 miles on pavement and not get a bone bruise with these and have it, again, every footfall is like, this is exactly the shoe I've always dreamt of, right? And every time you land, the toes are splaying out and you're pushing off the big toe the way humans are supposed to walk, not pushing off some combination of all toes scrunched together, right? Mm-hmm.
So the different shoes for different types of uses during the day for all occasions, as we like to say. And what does Paloova mean, by the way? So Paloova is a made up word. I have been the owner of Primal everything for 20 years. I have trademarks, Primal Blueprint, Primal Fitness, Primal Nutrition, Primal Kitchen, Primal Fuel, Primal Health Coach, Primal Health Coach Institute. I've always, I went to get Primal Footprint for 20 years.
Someone has it. Someone has, someone, no, someone has the word primal for all apparel, all clothing and all shoes. So I didn't want to, I didn't want to fight that. So we made up a new word and we went through different languages and saw what, you know, we were looking at anisi, which meant comfort in Greek and, and then P-E-L-U-V-A, pe-
In Portuguese, pé is foot and luva is glove. Oh, I like that. That's cool. I like going to other languages to come up with the names. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and it has a little bit of a sort of a high-end cachet to it. You know, it's got a little bit of a designer sound to it, we think. I love it. So you guys gave us
A nice code for the listeners, right? We can do 15% off discount? Absolutely, yes. Amazing. What's the code going to be? Well, you tell me what you want and we'll leave here today and create it immediately. Let's do POW, P-O-W. Love it. For Pursuit of Wellness. Yes. 15% off, guys, because they're going to want the shoes now. It'll be POW15. POW15, perfect. Okay, guys, go for it.
We all need to be on this paloova game because they feel incredible. Yeah. Now I would tell the ladies by maybe a half size up from your normal size. Okay. I'm in a 9.5 and I'm usually a nine. Yeah. And they fit well? They fit very well. Okay, good. Yeah. I would recommend that guys. Okay. Before we go, I just have a couple more questions about optimizing health. Thoughts on peptides? She's the expert. What's the peptide? Okay. Cause now they're illegal or something.
Right? I don't know that. The FDA is like not into peptides anymore? I don't know. But what are your guys' take on peptides? Start with Carrie. Yeah, I've done it several times where I'll inject. I haven't done it in the last month or two, but I'll inject five, probably five different things, five days a week. And I think I did notice a difference. You know, sleeping a little better, a little more energy, sleep.
Not requiring much sleep, so maybe better sleep. Did you have a name of one that was your favorite? Well, I think the glutathione, which isn't actually a peptide, but the glutathione and the NAD, which I was taking, I felt like people around me were getting sick more often. People around me were getting COVID and getting really sick. I did not. I thought I had allergies and I realized I had COVID.
And then also I've noticed something because we also did stem cells and also did exosomes. Okay, Greg's going to kill me if I don't ask about the stem cells. What's the take on the stem cells? We went to Costa Rica and did that, umbilical stem cells, had them injected through our veins. And then I did, which they put me under for this, they do about 100 injections on your face of umbilical stem cells just to help rejuvenate the skin. Wow.
And I do notice a difference. You do? So I'm glad I did that and I will do it again. Okay. Maybe yearly, which, and also which I wish we would have done. They will inject it into, like I have a little tear in my shoulder once in a while, my glute, his glute.
So it's good for injuries.
They had, they happened to inject the stem cells in this arm and within three days that was gone. Wow. And it hurt so badly. I literally couldn't, you know, put my weight on my elbow to get out of bed. Wow. So doing the stem cells in a specific area, I'm excited about that next time.
So you'd recommend it for injuries? Me, not so much. No, you don't? No, no, no. I just, you know, I did a systemic, we did a systemic infusion of stem cells and I didn't really notice anything. I'm not sure that I would do an inter-articular, again, for joint infusion without further research on it. In terms of the peptides, I haven't, I did BPC-157 for a while. It didn't
I didn't notice anything. So I stopped. Yeah. I stopped doing it. Greg and I both did BPC-157. He had a huge benefit. I didn't really feel it. Now I'm doing two peptides, one for fertility because I want to have a baby and one that kills off parasites because that was something I found in my blood work when I had my whole acne journey. So-
Those are the two I'm trying. I think it's called KPV and Epsilon. But it's hard to remember all the names. Oh, there's so many. I know. Numbers and names and letters and yeah. Yeah, it's too much. And then how do we feel about cold plunging and saunaing? Because that's all the rage right now. In LA here, we have a cold plunge and sauna in our home. Yeah. And in...
In Miami, we have one in our building, and I really like the cold blend. I mean, I don't like it. I mean, I do it because I feel like it helps with inflammation, soreness. I like it, and I love steam. And here we have the infrared sauna. I don't know if I noticed a difference between sauna and infrared sauna. How about you? I do sauna once or twice a week in Miami.
And I was a big fan of cold plunging for a long time. And we started 10 or 12 years ago in Malibu.
We have a pool. We had a pool in our Malibu house and we just, we keep it unheated. Yeah. And so in the wintertime I'd go out and it would be 48 degrees in the pool. And then we have a jacuzzi right next to it. And so I do my cold plunge and then she would come out and join me, but she would start with a jacuzzi and we'd, and I'd warm up with a jacuzzi. And so I was, I was plunging that way. My experience with it initially was I,
As a former triathlete, I just hated the water. And I just, it just, and I hated cold water. So even an 81 degree public pool was too cold for me to get into. Because it reminded you of those like grueling races? Exactly. So, and I just never liked the cold water. And I like, I mean, now we're going back, like I should lie down and have a therapist couch here. But I grew up as a skinny little kid in Maine. So as 11 year old kid going to the YMCA, you know,
which was a concrete barrier that filled in with fresh ocean water every day when the tide came in, in Maine. So the water was 56, 54 degrees. And that's where I learned to swim as this, you know, no body fat, having little skinny kid. So I hated cold water my whole life. Well, so now I'm in my 60s. I'm like, this is bullshit. I got to figure out, I got to get over this. So I trained myself to just walk into a,
a cold pool, not jump in and dive in, not just walk in slowly with zero affect on my face and just go, it's not good or bad. It's just a sensation. So that was my initial introduction to cold plunging was just my wanting to overcome this unnatural hatred I had of cold water. Like a mental toughness. A mental toughness thing. And, you know, like they say, do something every day that scares you a little bit, right? Yeah. Yeah.
And so over the years, we wound up doing that. And then we moved to Miami and there's a cold plunge there. So now it right about the time that plunging became a thing. Then I started coaching my buddies to, you know, here's, cause I would, I would be in the plunge for four and a half, five minutes. And they're like, oh my God. And they jump in and jump out and, you know, and, and, and give little screams and towel off and whatever. And I'm like, no. So I would coach them to their first 30 seconds or their first minute and
You know, and then after a couple of times, these guys would be coming up going, dude, I did seven minutes today. How much did you do? I'm like, this is not a contest, right? Someone's going to end up frozen with hypothermia. Well, and so what happens is if you overdo plunging, it becomes...
a bad stress. It doesn't become a positive hormetic stress, it becomes a bad stress. And it's a fine line between doing just enough to, you know, either activate cold shock protein or brown fat activation or anti-inflammatory results versus doing
- Yeah, I've seen people do it while sick and I'm like, what, that seems excessive. - Like counterproductive in every possible way. - Yeah. - So where are we at now? So we have a wonderful plunge by the plunge people, by the cold plunge people on our roof, we love it. I don't do it very much because I don't have the, I never really did it for the anti-inflammatory benefits. And one of the things that I think has come up in the last, just the last year,
Hormesis is a word that everybody starts to know. So you do the cold plunge because it's a hormetic stress. A hormetic stress is one that causes your body to upregulate, to adapt, to build up stronger, which is why you wanna have that stress be just the right amount. And if you overdo it, it becomes a negative stress and tears you down. But other things in your life are hormetic stressors too. So doing a hard workout is a hormetic stress. So do you wanna add another stress onto the stress of a hard workout?
The other thing we've realized is that if you do a cold plunge after, say, a hard gym workout, it negates, you know, you want the inflammation of the workout to cause your body to respond in ways that upregulate, build certain genes that build certain muscle.
So you, you know, you got to sort of be, I think, judicious about where and when and how often you do a cold plunge. That science terrified my husband because he was like, oh my God, my gains are being ruined by this. Yeah, for something. My gains are being ruined by something that I hate to do in the first place. Yeah. It was all he talked about for two weeks. I was like, I get it. Do it at a different time.
We started doing it in the evening now. No, and then there are people who do, you know, they call fire and ice, right? Sauna, cold, sauna, cold, sauna, cold. I don't know that that's anything other than a nice way to relax at the end of the day and maybe sleep well. I do that because it's the only way that I get myself in the cold.
Yeah. I have to trick myself. I'm like, I mentally tell myself I'm not going in, but then I sit in the sauna for so long that I'm so hot that I need to go in. Yeah. But do you finish with the cold? Yes. Okay. Because if you finish with a sauna, you've negated the cold plunge, right? No. Yeah. I stay cold. Yeah. I want that like... Yeah. So ideally in a plunge, you want to shiver for 20 minutes. Yeah. And then at the end of 20 minutes, be back to sort of a normal body temperature. Any other major...
hacks for aging beautifully that we're missing? I, you know, back to the footwear, you know, foot health is new sleep. Sleep is still big. So sleep, we are unapologetic about how much sleep we get. How much sleep are you guys getting? She gets nine. Nine plus. Although since I've taken the peptides and the stem cells, I think I sleep a little less. Yeah.
And not because she's trying to or not trying to, it's just she wakes up and she's ready to get out of bed and it is what it is. So I mean, I think the way to wake up every morning is to wake up naturally, like we never use an alarm clock. I think sleep is a big deal. I think again, that food,
80% of your body composition and your energy level and your, you know, your mental focus revolves around your food choices. I agree. So that's still kind of the number one thing that everyone ought to dial in. And if you try anything else and don't get your food right, the other things are going to be kind of like, you know, not even worth it.
Adding to your list of things. A hundred percent. I think food is the basis of everything. Now it's time for the question we ask every guest. I started this podcast because I believe everyone's pursuit of wellness looks different. What does wellness mean to both of you? Well, wellness to me just means extracting the greatest amount of fulfillment, enjoyment, pleasure, contentment out of every possible moment in my life.
I love that answer. Carrie? I know it's a big question. While he's always focused on the body and food, I feel like mine's been more of a healthy mental state. So I think I've done a lot of work on that. Like,
what that is to me. So, I mean, obviously I am vain, so I'm going to eat right and I'm going to exercise and I enjoy it. It's a big part of my life, but I went back about 15 years ago and did a program in spiritual psychology. Wow. And since done a lot of different workshops, read a lot of different books, and I think I
That's the main reason why we are so happy today. I mean, I love this man more than the day I met him or the day I married him. We're having more fun. We're having better sex. We laugh. We wake up and just every morning give each other a big hug. It's like so grateful for my life. I'm so grateful.
And I think that to me is as important as eating right and exercising. Like where am I inside myself? Am I healthy? Am I happy? Am I grateful? Am I giving back? You know, all those things. So I think it's like the full picture for me.
Beautiful answer. Wow. That was amazing. I'm going to have to re-listen to this episode myself because that was awesome. Guys, where can they find you online? Where can they find Paloova? Oh, the clothes. And the clothes. I mean, the tracksuit's so cute. Yeah, we have these cute little baby tees and cute long sleeve tees. And then I made a men's tracksuit. And then I made the women's tracksuit.
which will all be coming out in the next month or so. Gorgeous. It looks great. Thank you. I'm obsessed. We'll send you some. I would love that, please. So Mark's Daily Apple is the blog that's been around for 17 years now.
My Instagram is Mark Sisson Primal. And Paloova is paloova.com, P-E-L-U-V-A.com. On Instagram, we are wherepaloova, W-E-A-R paloova. So yeah, look us up and try them out. And use code POW for 15. And use code POW, yeah. POW15. POW15. POW15. Carrie, where can they find you online? Instagram as well, Carrie Lynn Sisson.
I'd say that's all, right? Amazing. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Mari. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Go comment on my last Instagram @marilewellen with the guest you want to see next.
I'll be picking one person from the comments to send our Bloom Greens to. Make sure you hit follow so you never miss my weekly episodes. If you enjoyed the conversation, be sure to share and leave a review. See you next week. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.