Steve Maraboli once said, “By choosing healthy over skinny, you are choosing self-love over self-judgment.” And author Paul Khan said, “I live in my body, my house, so I better be good to it.”
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — health is wealth. If you’re not healthy, you can’t live a truly wealthy life. Even if you had all the money in the world — the biggest house — if you were unhealthy, then does that all matter?
It’s a shame, but a lot of people live their lives in a constant state of being unhealthy without even realizing it. It’s amazing how incredible we can feel if we get the proper sleep we need, eat healthy foods, and exercise regularly. My guest today knows this better than anyone.
My guest today is Shawn Stevenson, author of the international bestselling book Sleep Smarter and creator of The Model Health Show which is featured as the #1 Fitness & Nutrition podcast in the United States! He is a personal friend of mine, and I really value his mission to share quality information with the world to help us all be as healthy as we can be. I could talk with Shawn for hours about nutrition, mindset, health, and even relationships — I never want to stop!
He was able to give us a sneak peek of the crazy new information that he’s learned while writing his new book: Eat Smarter: Use the Power of Food to Reboot Your Metabolism, Upgrade Your Brain and Transform Your Life.
I’m so excited to share this interview with you, and I know it’ll support your personal growth!
Who Is Shawn Stevenson?
As one of the world’s foremost authorities on the science of sleep (in a world that’s constantly struggling with it), Shawn Stevenson has increasingly found his insight very much in demand.
He wasn’t always an authority on better sleep, though.
He became one after suffering some severe pain and mobility issues at 20. Upon seeking medical advice, Shawn was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. His doctors at the time told him that it was progressive and incurable, that he had the spine of an 80-year-old man, and that he could only expect to get worse as time wore on.
But Shawn wasn’t interested in hearing any of that.
Instead of accepting the doom-and-gloom prognosis of his medical team, Shawn decided to take matters into his own hands. He started taking a more holistic view of his health and incorporated some significant lifestyle changes — everything from a better diet to increased physical activity to a proper amount of sleep.
By applying a total-body treatment plan, Shawn was able to not only halt his condition in its tracks, but in some cases, also reverse some of the effects. At that point, he knew he had a mission: to educate the masses on the importance of diet, exercise, and getting better sleep.
Today, Shawn is the host of the #1 podcast on Apple’s “Health and Fitness” chart, The Model Health Show, which covers everything from diet and exercise to relationship advice. His books have consistently topped bestseller and audio download charts. And he’s been hired as a keynote speaker to deliver his message of total-body health to companies like Hilton, US Bank, Google, MasterCard, and Whole Foods.
I had a chance to sit down with Shawn a few years ago to discuss his book, “Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success.” And then, I had the pleasure of interviewing him again on Episode #895 to discuss the science of sleep in more detail. But today, I wanted to specifically talk about food and how we can best lose weight, boost our metabolism, and stabilize our hormones for a healthy lifestyle. You’re not going to want to miss this one.
The Science of Fat
Did you know that there’s more than one type of fat in your body? It’s true! There are actually five types of fat, and they serve different purposes. Shawn explained what each type does to help us understand why fat is important — especially since fat is highly connected to your hormones.
The first type of fat is white fat, and there are actually three more kinds within that one category. White fats are storage fats — they hold onto energy for use later on. First, there’s the fat you probably think of immediately — the type you find on your stomach, arms, legs, and butt. It’s the kind of fat that you can pinch, and it’s called “subcutaneous fat.”
After that, there’s visceral fat. That right under the subcutaneous fat, and it’s a little tougher. According to Shawn, this is the most dangerous type of fat:
“This is the fat that’s most correlated with heart disease, with Alzheimer’s, with Type Two diabetes. … It’s just putting stress on your core.” – Shawn Stevenson
The final type of white fat is intramuscular fat. Think of a really well-marbleized steak — the fat that you’re seeing is this kind of intramuscular fat. It’s necessary for our muscles to have the energy they need to move!
White fat is important, but you can have too much of it. That’s where health issues like being overweight or obese come into play. But there’s some good news — you actually have fat that burns fat.
The two final types of fat are brown fat and beige fat. According to Shawn, brown fat cells are extremely dense in mitochondria, and they take the energy stored in your white fat cells and actually burn them. And finally, beige fat cells can actually become brown or white fat cells depending on your nutrition intake. These types of fat help burn energy in your body, which causes your fat cells to shrink, which causes you to lose weight.
But here’s the thing: All of these types of fat are important. In fact, Shawn says that your fat functions like just another organ:
“We tend to think of [fat as] scattered droplets of cells … throughout our body, but it’s really an organ itself. … It’s an organ that has this interconnected communication, and, being that it’s an organ, it produces its own hormones.” – Shawn Stevenson
There’s a keyword here — hormones. Your body is constantly producing hormones. From your brain to every fat cell in your body, hormones are functioning like little messages (Shawn called them “metabolic DMs”) that regulate a ton of the functions our body needs to survive. But are there other influences on how well our bodies can make and use hormones?
