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Scot S: Time for a Listener Scot update. We met Scot back in July. He said he was a little bit overweight. His blood pressure was a little bit high. He felt like he was active enough, but he wanted to get things a little bit more under control, so he asked us what we thought. And boy, did we tell him what we thought.

So, today, it's our Scot update episode. How is Scot doing, and are there some lessons that anyone trying to get a little bit more healthy, lose a little bit of weight, or try to affect those numbers can learn?

This is "Who Cares about Men's Health," providing information, inspiration, and a different interpretation about men's health. I am Scot Singpiel. The MD to my B.S. is co-host Dr. Troy Madsen.

Troy: I'm here.

Scot S: You sound so happy about it too.

Troy: Present.

Scot S: Producer Mitch is in the mix.

Mitch: Hey there.

Scot S: We've got Thunder Jalili, who is our guy that has a PhD in eatology. He's a nutritionist extraordinaire.

Thunder: Hi, everyone. I'm happy to be here, unlike Troy.

Scot S: Good.

Troy: Thanks, Thunder.

Scot S: And our guest today is Listener Scot. How you doing today, Scot?

Scot: I'm doing all right. I'm glad to be here.

Scot S: All right. So, Scot, when we left off back in July, which was when we talked to you, what was the plan of action that you took away from our conversation so you could work on your weight and your blood pressure, which was just a little bit high?

Scot: So the primary takeaways that I had were, one, I really need more minutes of exercise per week, hopefully getting up there towards 30 minutes a day, as well as go talk to a dietitian. So those were the two big things.

There was another one of like, "As you're doing your desk job, make sure you get up and do some exercises. Sit on an exercise ball, if you can get one, for a couple hours a day." So there were those ancillary things as well, but that was my main "This is what I can do at this time."

Scot S: All right. And how did it go on any of those things?

Scot: So, with the exercising, I did quite a bit more as far as more frequently, as well as different things. So I did a lot of running and biking before, and I tried to do more inside cardio. Not really weightlifting, because I don't really have big weights or anything. My body is heavy enough. But that didn't last too long because I just hurt all day every day, and realized that, at very least at this time, I cannot maintain that frequency and duration of exercising. And so I cut it back. I am currently more than I was when we originally talked, but not as much as 210 minutes a week.

Scot S: Okay, so 210 minutes. So you were doing consistently 30 minutes a day at that point?

Scot: I sure was trying. It certainly felt like 210 minutes. And it might have been "instructions unclear" type thing, where I was under the impression that it was 30 minutes of sweating. So a casual walk down the street wouldn't have counted towards my 30 minutes. And maybe that's one of the places where I went wrong.

Thunder: I would actually think that 30 minutes of sweating is a good guide. And you can sweat when you walk as well. It depends on how fast you walk, or whether you're walking uphill, so it doesn't necessarily mean you're maybe out there sprinting for 30 minutes.

Troy: But it sounds like doing that, though, you were feeling it. You're talking sore muscles? Are you talking injuries? Or what did you experience exactly?

Scot: So mostly sore muscles, kind of sore joints. I did notice that the more strength training that I did, the less my knee bothered me as far as, "Hey, if you do a bunch of squats, when you go running, your knee won't hurt you as much." And so I did notice that that improved. It did not go away, but it did improve considerably.

Troy: Interesting. But it sounds like at this point, though, at least you're doing more than you were doing before that.

Scot: Yeah, that's kind of what the exercising happened with. The big things are my weight has gone down. So I was almost consistently like 180 every morning. Well, every morning that I measured. And now I'm generally down somewhere around 177, but it's kind of plateaued there for the last three weeks or so. So it's been an improvement. It went down a little bit more than that when I was exercising a ton, but I just couldn't maintain that.

Scot S: Hey, Thunder and Troy, one of the words that Scot did not mention when he talked about his 30 minutes a day is intensity. And it sounds like maybe the intensity was a little too much too fast. What do you guys think of that?

Thunder: Yeah, I think that's maybe one of the factors. The other thing I was trying to get a sense of, Scot, how long did you give it the 30 minutes of sweating a day before you felt that you were too sore and you can't keep it up? Was that a couple of weeks? How long did that happen?

Scot: Yeah, it was probably about three weeks.

Troy: And remind me again, what exactly were you doing? You said biking, maybe some running?

Scot: Yeah, mostly biking, running, and then kind of strength training. There were definitely some days when heavy yard work would have counted, things like that. But generally, it was sweating. And when I went running and when I went biking, it wasn't really like, "Okay, I'm going to sprint. I'm really going to work hard." It's like, "No, I just want to actually run. I don't want to do the slow foot shuffle."

Troy: So it sounds like intensity was pretty high, and it sounds like . . . Did you ramp up pretty quickly to 7 days a week, 210 minutes a week?

Scot: More or less immediately. I mean, that might have been part of the problem, but . . .

Troy: Yeah, that might have been a part of it.

Thunder: Yeah, I think so. I see where Troy is going with this, and I kind of agree with that. Maybe you started a little bit too fast. There is definitely a little bit of ramping up. Makes it easier to stick to things.

Scot: That might be a part of it. I have noticed throughout my life that recovery from exercise has generally taken longer than it seems to take my peers, which might come up again in part of my dietitian story.

Thunder: So just real quick, one of the things I see fairly commonly in the gym with my friends and other people who start working out is sometimes they'll start out pretty hard, have a bunch of exercises they're going to do, they do three sets, they don't think about their weights. They do that, and then the next day and maybe the next few days, they're crippled.

So there is something to be said for starting slow. And to be honest, if you're going to do a weightlifting routine, it may take you actually the full three weeks to start slow and build up to the point where you're doing three sets of something with the weight that you want to try.

Scot S: It might even be longer than that, Thunder. I mean, I've lifted weights before too. It's amazing how easy it is to get sore if you're not careful when you're first starting out. It could be a couple of months of just doing some easy weight training exercise with some light weights before you start ramping up. I know that makes a huge difference for me, because I've done that, what you said your friends have done in the past, and then it just comes to a screeching halt because I don't want to do it anymore.

Thunder: Yeah, exactly. And that's the downside, is jumping in too fast becomes a disincentive because now you're like, "Oh, I'm hurting all the time. I'm sore. I'm tired. This sucks."

So I guess bottom line is I would say don't give up on it, Scot. Try to incorporate some of that stuff in there. It's totally okay to kind of start easy and slow for a few weeks so you don't go through that disincentive of being too tired or too sore.

Scot: How much does that apply? Before we talked the first time, I was already running a 5k or an equivalent to a 5k two to three times a week. And then it was like, "Okay, I want to try and do six to seven times a week." It's not like I was a couch potato to 210 minutes a week.

Thunder: If you were adding weight training in there, maybe you run three days a week, and you do three days a week of weight training. But those three days you do the weight training has to be a very slow onboarding process, so to speak.

Maybe it should take you three, four weeks to get to the point where you're doing . . . If you have five exercises you want to do in the gym, and you're doing three sets of each, it'll maybe take you three weeks to get to the point where you're doing three sets of each, if that makes sense. And you keep your running, but just two, three times a week. Doing both every day will take more than 30 minutes and you'll definitely be sore.

Scot: Yeah.

Troy: And if you look at it, too, essentially you more than doubled what you were doing. So you said you were doing two to three times a week, and you went up to, it sounds like, seven days a week. So that's a big jump.

Scot S: Yeah, it is.

Troy: And maybe a 20% increase, and then you give it a month and see where you are, and another 20% increase. Again, the great news is you're better off now than you were then. You've lost some weight. You're exercising more. What's your minutes per week right now?

Scot: Probably around 100, 120 of solid sweating, not counting the leisurely bike rides, walking, mowing the lawn, stuff like that.

Thunder: Well, I think leisurely bike rides should count also because . . .

Troy: I do too, yeah.

Thunder: . . . you may not know you're sweating, Scot, because if the breeze is blowing on you, that sweat is evaporating, so you don't really know.

Scot: Well, sweet.

Thunder: Now, what are we up to? What are the minutes?

Scot: That easily adds another 60 minutes, easily.

Troy: Nice. I was going to say I love it. You've truly embraced the Matthew McConaughey Rule. You're going for the sweat. It may be 15 degrees out, but you're going for the sweat. So maybe the better rule is just getting your heart rate up. And sometimes that old Matthew McConaughey thing, he's like, "Yeah, I just break a sweat every day." But I'm sure he has personal trainers, and dieticians, and all that.

Thunder: Troy, it's a lot easier to do when you live in Texas.

Troy: Sure is. He just walks outside and he breaks a sweat. But yeah, I think maybe just looking more stuff to get your heart rate up. And a bike ride, that's going to get your heart rate up, pushing a lawnmower around, things like that. So I would definitely give yourself credit for that time you're investing as well. That's all definitely stuff that's . . . That's exercise, no doubt.

Thunder: You mentioned, Scot, you lost a few pounds, but you kind of seemed to downplay it, like maybe it's only about three pounds, or four pounds, or something. I think that does make a big difference, especially if that's weight that's come off of the abdominal area. If you're thinking about long-term chronic disease risk, that's what increases risk for people, is weight around the abdominal area. So think about that. And maybe three or four pounds has been a really positive change in that regard.

Scot: Yeah, every little bit counts. And I have noticed that my exercise shorts have more of a tendency to low-ride now versus in the beginning. So something has happened.

Troy: Something has changed.

Scot S: Yeah, I think sometimes we can get this twisted perception of what success and progress is. I know for a while on my Facebook feed, I had numerous people that were way overweight, like I'm talking 100 pounds or more overweight, and they're losing 5, 6 pounds a week. Everybody is talking about how great they look. And it was always really frustrating, because I'm a skinny fat guy, so I could lose five pounds, it could be pretty significant, but nobody had ever noticed. Nobody had ever celebrated. And that's just as much of a win for me as five or six pounds was for somebody else a week.

So I think sometimes we get a little bit of a skewed . . . the shows like "The Biggest Loser." You think you have to have these huge changes so fast. That's just not necessarily always the reality, and those little small ones should be celebrated.

And then you also went to a dietitian. What was the goal of going to a dietician, and how did that play out for you?

Scot: So that story is a little bit longer. But the goal of the dietitian was really to see how foods might be hindering me from reaching my optimal goals. If there's something that's fairly easy to cut out, let's do it.

And so I went to a dietitian. For what it's worth, I was able to get my insurance to cover it. All I needed was a note from my doctor that said, "Yes, the last time he was in here, his BMI was over 25." And that referral was enough. I don't know if that's valid for everyone, but it worked for me.

Thunder: That's a really great thing to bring up, because I think that's a message a lot of people need to hear. Sometimes people don't want to pay for that counseling out of their own pocket. So to have it covered with insurance is fantastic.

Scot: Yeah. Well, one of the things that made a lot of sense . . . So I met with the dietician three times, and the first time, they said,"It's interesting that people are willing to go to the dentist every year, but not to a dietitian." And that made a lot of sense to me as far as like, "Hey, check in." We usually go to the dentist, and all it is, is, "Yep, your teeth aren't falling out yet, and you still aren't flossing." The dietitian could be more or less the same thing.

So from first appointment, we sat there and kind of discussed what am I wanting out of this, a little bit of weight, a little bit of blood pressure. And so we talked about four different possibilities. Essentially, there might be some food that is mildly irritating to my body.

The four things that we discussed were cutting out gluten, cutting out dairy, cutting out eggs, and then adding a bunch of probiotics. And so I sat around for a couple days and thought, "Which one of those would be easiest to do?" And we decided to try gluten. So I did a two-week no gluten thing, and essentially nothing changed.

But while I was doing the gluten thing, I kind of realized, "You know what? Maybe there are more things that I need to talk about with the dietician because my digestive health could be a little bit better." So I went back said, "Hey, the gluten thing didn't work out. My digestion hasn't been great, so let's try the probiotics next," and we talked about it.

So I went out. I did a little bit of kefir with breakfast and dinner or dessert, and then some sauerkraut with lunch. Did that for two and a half weeks, and there was a little bit of difference with the digestive health, but generally nothing else seemed to change.

Troy: And help me out here, Scot, when you're talking digestive health, are you talking your stomach feeling unsettled, or are you talking just having regular bowel movements? What exactly were they going for there? I'm just curious what led to that.

Scot: Stool consistency was kind of what I was going for, or regularity.

Troy: So you were kind of feeling constipated, and they said, "Let's try something and see if this helps out," and trying probiotics, that sort of thing?

Scot: Yes, except I'm generally on the other end of the spectrum.

Troy: Oh, okay. So maybe a little too frequently?

Scot: Yeah.

Troy: Frequent visits? No shame in that. I'll readily admit I've had issues with that as well.

Scot: But like everything else, it isn't terrible. Everything that I have is perfectly livable. But I've realized, "Oh, let's talk about it. Maybe this is something else."

Troy: Good.

Scot: And so it's kind of the theme here, that there's some idea of, "Hey, go to the dietician." "Oh, I'd never thought about that." "Try the gluten." And while I'm doing the gluten, I realized, "Oh, wait, maybe I should be considering more than just weight and blood pressure. Maybe digestion too," and kind of opened up the scope of what I'm considering for "What are my measures of health? What is affecting my quality of life?"

Troy: That's an interesting approach, probably different than . . . when we mentioned the dietitian, I think we were thinking more some of those hidden sugars, things like that. But you were really going to them more targeting that, and just trying to feel better digestion-wise, where maybe your stomach didn't feel so unsettled, or you weren't having such frequent trips to the restroom, things like that.

Scot: Yeah, but that was the second thing. I tried the gluten first, which was supposed to be the blood pressure and whatever. But while it was doing the probiotics, I was sitting there thinking, again, about, "Huh, I wonder what is the power of dietitians and whatnot?"

And I had seen somewhere that sugars can affect mood. And so my scope creep opened up a little bit more of, "You know what? My mood could be better." I find that I tend to ruminate. Another thing with sugars can be associated with soreness after exercising. And so I'm like, "Okay, whatever. I'm going to try that."

Because of scheduling conflicts, I wasn't able to see the dietician right after the probiotics thing, so I decided just by myself, "You know what? I'm going to try and cut out everything sweet," including maple syrups. Essentially anything that is sweet and easy to cut out so I'd do it. So my pancakes were peanut butter and bananas, which is not as satiating as butter and syrup and everything.

But I found out that that has almost completely removed all of my rumination. If something negative happens to me, or I find some bad news or something, it doesn't ruin the rest of my day. I mean, it's still bad, I'm still sad, or whatever about it, but I'm able to be like, "Okay, that's great," and move on, which is a really surprising outcome from our original conversation. It might not be correlated. It might be because I've been exercising so much more or whatever, but currently, that is what I am experiencing, which is surprising.

Thunder: That is also an exercise effect, because regular exercise is known to be one of those things that helps people deal with stress and improve their mood. One thing I would ask, Scot, is how long have you been doing the low sugar/no sugar diet?

Scot: So I cut out the sugary cereals before we talked. I did the math, and low-balling it, I was probably consuming as much sugar as is in half a can of soda every morning just in cereal. So that probably had an effect. But the actual cessation of sugar was about a week and a half, close to two weeks ago, and I noticed the rumination benefits within a couple days of stopping.

Troy: Have you seen a tie in there, Thunder, with sugar and maybe some of the mental health benefits, or some of those things he's mentioning?

Thunder: I don't really know what exact ties are maybe in sugar consumption. Like everything else, it's probably related to the amount you're consuming. I mean, I'm not discounting what Scot is saying at all. Just right now on the spot, I'm having trouble kind of drawing a pathway in my mind to try to explain it, if that makes sense.

Scot: So I did talk with my dietician yesterday. That was my last appointment. I brought it up, and she more or less said, "That's great. I have read that high sugar has been associated with depression, and so maybe this is kind of the same thing. I don't know. But if you're seeing benefits, hey, that's great."

Thunder: High sugar is associated with so many negative things, but the key is how do you define high sugar? What level is high sugar? Scot, I'm not sure really how much sugar you had. I mean, it sounds like in breakfast, you would probably have about 20 grams of added sugar or more. Yeah, it's a fair amount. But I don't know in general, your diet, how high was it?

There are tons of studies that show if you feed high sugar, where you get to the point of 10% of your calories to 20% of your calories, that does have specific physiological problems that develop.

I'll give you just one example. If you give someone's calories, say, 10% to 20% of their calories in the form of sugar, their LDL levels go up. LDL is the bad form of cholesterol that's in your blood. And not only that, the type of LDL that's produced is the more atherogenic type. In other words, the type that's worse for heart disease. But that happens with 10% to 20% of your calories coming from sugar.

So taking it back to you, I don't know where you would fall into that scheme, because I haven't seen your diet. And I'm sure there are other connections as well with sugar. I'm just more familiar with the heart disease and obesity issues around it, and also the blood pressure issue. That's another thing. Sugar is known to increase blood pressure and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Scot: Yeah. I mean, this is all a great big experiment on myself. I know that I'm probably similar to most people, but I'm also unique in my own ways. And I still need to find out if all of this is just coincidence, or if it's actually correlated, because there are quite a few nights that I'll be laying in bed and tell my partner, "I really just want a cake."

Thunder: Join the club.

Troy: I hear you.

Scot: Not a piece of cake. I want the whole cake.

Troy: "I want a cake." I get it.

Scot S: All the cake.

Troy: Just bring it.

Thunder: Well, everything that's positive that's been happening, it's great. But I think all of us can't fall into the mistake of trying to put the finger on one thing. Because you know what? A lot of this comes back to basically healthy lifestyle. What's part of healthy lifestyle? Trying to get some exercise, trying to find a way of dealing with your stress, trying to eat healthier.

So we may not have to identify one specific dietary change, but the fact that you're changing multiple things and you're having a positive benefit, that's the important take-home message.

Scot: Yep. And that is similar to what the dietitian was saying, of every time we cut out something for a couple of weeks, we gain information. You gain the information of, "If I don't eat this, I see these benefits." And if at any point in time those benefits are worth cutting it out, go for it. That's kind of how I viewed everything, and will go forward under that of, "Let's see how much sugar I can eat while still maintaining these benefits."

Or maybe it's exercise-related. I don't know. But I'm certain when Christmas comes around, there will be plenty of sugars that I eat, and no exercising that will be done, and we'll find out.

Troy: Give yourself some credit. We know you can do it. You can resist and you can keep exercising. It's a challenge.

Scot S: I think, too, the other the other takeaway is you're doing a great job cutting out stuff, but I hear words like "all" or "as much as you can." Everything in moderation, right, Thunder? Every once in a while, you can have a little reward. It's just more of what choices are you making on a regular basis? Would you agree with that, Thunder?

Thunder: Yeah, I totally agree with that. It is really hard to be super militant all the time. And you don't want to fall into the trap of having a piece of cake and then just throwing your hands up in the air and saying, "It's over. Just give me the rest of the cake." It's okay to have stuff like that once in a while.

You have other levers you can operate, right? One of those is the exercise lever. So maybe if you have a little bit of a tougher time with some of your dietary approach, Scot, maybe you try to just ramp up a little bit more exercise for that week, or that day, or something. So I would use all the tools at my disposal as you move forward.

Scot: Definitely. I guess for some context, at least for the dietician that I went to . . . and we're talking about excluding things from the diet to gain information. It is important for two weeks to be very militant about, "You do not eat any gluten," to figure out is it actually bad. I have no intention of living this way for the rest of my life. But for the two-week experiment phase, that's kind of how it has to be.

Scot S: Thunder, what's your take? When I read that Scot went to a dietician and that they went down the route of gluten sensitivity and just different food sensitivity diagnosis, I kind of rolled my eyes a little bit. I feel like that happens a lot, but I don't know that . . . It seems like a little bit . . . I don't know. It's not witchcraft, but I'm like, "Really? That's the first thing, huh?" What's your take on that?

Thunder: It does happen a lot, it seems like. I guess it's one of those trendy things. Everybody wants to immediately talk about gluten.

So the reality is some people are definitely gluten-sensitive and it has a lot of big problems as it relates to their digestive health, and their body weight, and things like that. But you don't really know who is gluten-sensitive, so this is one of the approaches.

If you're faced with somebody who has some of those issues that could raise the flag of gluten sensitivity, then it's an easy thing to try. Go on your gluten-free diet for one or two weeks and see what happens. I think that's part of the reason why it's so popular.

But obviously, not everyone is gluten-sensitive. So in Scot's case, it didn't really make much of a difference one way or the other.

And there are other examples, though, of this in nutrition as well. Salt is another one. If someone has high blood pressure, one of the first knee jerk things that's done is you tell that patient, "Oh, just eat less salt. Reduce your sodium intake. Let's see if we can reduce your blood pressure." There are some people that do respond to that, but not everyone does. But people try it anyway just to see if it works. If it doesn't work, put it aside and move on to a different approach.

So that's my take on gluten sensitivity. I think it's in that paradigm.

Scot S: Mitch, you've been quiet. Do you want to jump in with anything?

Mitch: So the thing that I keep thinking about a lot when it comes to, say, even my own health . . . I've slipped up a little bit recently, but it's that idea of finding what works for you, right? And that's a big problem I think that happens when we talk men's health, and you see the magazines, and you look on Reddit, etc. Everyone swears they found the one way to lose weight, or the one way to drop your blood pressure, one way to lose whatever, when actually there are maybe 50 different ways that could maybe work for you.

And so it's very inspiring, Scot, to hear that in the six weeks you've made a lot of progress, but on top of that, you're trying things. You're taking an active role in your health, in getting yourself to that next level, rather than just, "Oh, I'm good enough."

So trying things out, and trying the elimination stuff, and just getting to know yourself better in your body, in your health, I think that's really the takeaway for me as someone by the sideline who's trying to also improve his own health.

Scot: My partner is very grateful to you, that you . . . "you" meaning the whole podcast family I guess . . . have been the kick in the pants I needed to actually try some of these things that she's been advocating for, of like, "Hey, we eat too much sugar. We should try decreasing that. We should do this." It has been a long time coming, and I guess this was the stimulus that I needed. And she really appreciates it.

Troy: And that's probably the biggest thing. It's not so much what you're doing, it's that you're doing it. Like Mitch said, you're trying stuff. The thing that makes me happiest to hear is you're better off than you were six weeks ago, and you're very comfortable with that. It sounds like what you're doing now is very sustainable and you're happy with it. And I think that's the greatest thing. So I think you've got something you're comfortable with, you're doing well, and you can just keep building on it.

Scot: I absolutely agree.

Scot S: Moving forward, Scot, what's your next plan of action? How are you going to continue this great progress that you've got so far?

Scot: I'm definitely planning on trying to continue to increase the activity level as far as strength training, as well as cardio type stuff, so head in that direction. Hopefully, I can get up to closer to 210 minutes a week. But I'm also going to cut myself some slack as far as leisurely bike rides and stuff like that. So that will make it a lot easier to get up there.

Other than that, I'm planning on playing with this sugar idea a little bit more. So maybe another half week or a week of being serious about it, and then slowly introducing it back to see if symptoms return.

If nothing happens with that, I am planning on trying a dairy cessation for two weeks, and an egg-cessation at some point. Not immediately. I'm kind of getting overwhelmed with all of that. But it would be interesting to see what happens.

I still want to get a personal trainer for a couple of sessions to help me with my gait or techniques when I do squats or something like that. I think that having that feedback would be very important. It just didn't happen over the last handful of weeks.

So that's kind of where I'm going. Kind of more of the same, more of this experimentation, and trying to get a professional to give me personalized feedback.

Scot S: Very cool. Troy, do you have any last thoughts?

Troy: Like I said before, I love what you're doing. Again, I think it's more that you're doing it, and you're trying stuff, and you're finding stuff that works. Just keep it up. I'll be excited to hear where you are in another six weeks.

Scot S: Thunder?

Thunder: Yeah, I agree with Troy. You're making the changes. You're trying different things. Keep it up. It'll take a little while before you land on something that exactly works for you consistently that you can live with, but this is all part of the journey. So, yeah, good for you.

Scot S: And I'm going to tell you, Scot, you actually inspired me. After we talked, that initial episode, I decided I needed to get back into the gym doing some weight training again. So as a result of our conversation, our interaction, and that whole deal, I've been fairly consistent, at least two times a week, which for me is pretty good, if not three times a week, of getting in and doing some strength training.

And it's taken about a month, six weeks, but now I'm starting to notice some benefits. I'm definitely noticing that I'm getting a little bit stronger, and clothes are fitting a little bit differently.

So I wanted to thank you for caring about your health to the extent that it made me care about mine again. Being in the gym was something I hadn't done for a while. And I actually kind of do like weight training in the gym, even though Troy doesn't. So thank you, Scot. I appreciate that.

Scot: You're very welcome. And thank you for being a positive impact on my life.

Scot S: Scot, it's been a pleasure. We look forward to checking in again. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out anytime, all right?

Scot: Okay. Thank you.

Scot S: Oh, it was so awesome hearing from Listener Scot. He's making some progress. Things are going well. It just takes time. It takes some trial and error, figuring things out, especially finding a type of health that's going to work for you and work for your goals. It doesn't have to always be about being big and buff, and being able to do extreme stuff. So we'll check back in with Scot at a later date.

By the way, if you have any questions or if you'd like to talk to the "Who Cares About Men's Health" crew, a couple ways you can do that. You can email us, hello@thescoperadio.com. You can call and leave a voicemail at 601-55SCOPE. Or you can go to our Facebook page, facebook.com/whocaresmenshealth, and you can send a message there, or make a post on our wall.

Thank you for listening. And by the way, if there's somebody else you think might find this useful that could be inspired by Scot's story or any of the things we talk about to start their health journey, by all means, please share this with them. That's the best way to get this podcast out to as many men as possible.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for caring about men's health.