Generations

Aubrey
00:07-00:12
All right, welcome back to Generations. I am one of your hosts, Aubrey.

Peter
00:12-00:14
And I am your other host, Peter.

Aubrey
00:14-00:55
So we were just we were just chatting for a little bit before before we started recording, Dad, but besides seeing a couple of movies lately, how have you been since we last chatted Yeah.

Peter
00:26-01:12
I have been okay, um, you know, just kind of working. We were in I had a week off and we were in Boise for the second half of that week for Gareth's swim meet. That was fun. It was good. He did well. He definitely was feeling feeling the change. You know, last year at this meet, he was 14 and like thir or 11 months. And so he swam all of his races in the 13 to 14 age category. Then he turned 15. And so this year, at the age of 15, almost 16, but he was swimming in the 15 to 19 age category.

Aubrey
01:11-01:14
Oh, wow. They really group all those together.

Peter
01:13-01:24
Yeah, they do, which is funny because there's a fairly significant difference between a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old.

Aubrey
01:24-01:25
Definitely.

Peter
01:25-01:34
I mean, there was a kid there who swims collegiately for a D1 school. And so he would.

Aubrey
01:33-01:36
And then let him that doesn't make any sense.

Peter
01:35-01:43
I mean, it's during the summer, so he's not actually in school right now. So he swims with the the city team.

Aubrey
01:39-01:40
Right.

Peter
01:43-01:46
when when school's out. So, you know.

Aubrey
01:45-01:51
What the heck?

Peter
01:46-01:57
I mean, he was cool about it. He basically won every preliminary he was in, but then he would scratch all of his finals, which would give an alternate a spot in the in the final.

Aubrey
01:51-01:58
Right. Oh. Nice.

Peter
01:58-02:00
So he didn't swim any finals.

Aubrey
01:58-02:00
Oh, that's nice.

Peter
02:00-02:08
But yeah, did that. And then this last week, just working, and your mom was in Texas visiting Heidi for the wee And she gets home.

Aubrey
02:05-02:07
Yep. Yep.

Peter
02:08-02:19
She landed a little bit ago. She'll get home. And then tomorrow morning, bright and early, she and Gareth will head down to Salt Lake to fly out to Sal to California for the week.

Aubrey
02:18-02:21
Oh yeah, that's already happening.

Peter
02:21-02:21
Oh, yeah.

Aubrey
02:21-02:23
Wow.

Peter
02:22-02:31
No. Like, she'll be home for 14 hours and then turn around and and uh take off again.

Aubrey
02:23-02:29
That's wow. That's crazy. Yikes.

Peter
02:31-02:34
So but what about you? How you been? What you been up to?

Aubrey
02:34-04:10
Um, you know, not much. Um, Jess came out to visit for like six days, which was super fun. So we did do a bunch of Stuff when they were here. Yeah, just like explored around Madison, all like the fun things that We've kind of gathered as the quote fun things to do in Madison. We basically just did all of them in like six days. Um yeah, did s like swam at the rooftop pool a bunch went to To a Wren Fair, went out to like our favorite little restaurants and stuff downtown. There was like a Um, the weekend that they were there was called like Maxwell Street Days or whatever, where there's like all throughout the little downtown by the Capitol area, all shops have like a little outdoor tent thing and there's supposed to do have like a bunch of sales and stuff so you can just like it's like a farmer's market but everyone is just they actually have their building like behind them they just Just have like a tent on the street, and they block off all of State Street. So, not even, I mean, cars can like never go on certain parts of State Street, but they blocked it off to even bikes and buses, too. So, it was literally just walking around to a bunch of different tents, which was cool. Um yeah, we just did a bunch of random stuff, so that was fun. Um, and yeah, then they left on Tuesday. So, yeah, now I'm just now I'm just chilling. Back to normal, regularly scheduled programming, I guess.

Peter
04:10-04:11
There, you go.

Aubrey
04:10-04:25
Which is not much. So, yeah, not really a ton But it's good. It's good to not have a ton to do 'cause this is a very small sliver of my life in the grand scheme of things.

Peter
04:24-04:25
It's true.

Aubrey
04:25-04:30
So I'm enjoying I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have much to do.

Peter
04:25-04:27
It's a good way to look at it.

Aubrey
04:30-05:49
But but yeah. So um yeah, but for our topic today, um I guess I can kind of kick us off 'cause it was came from my brain. Um so I figured, well, me and you talk a lot about or have talked a lot about in the past like our goals and stuff that we have worked on. We do a lot we did a lot of you know, I don't know how you're doing on it now. I've kind of fallen off Especially not being in school anymore, but like weekly reflecting on goals and like revising, making new ones and stuff like that, in just different aspects of our lives. So I kind of figured we could talk about just like the smaller. like daily habits that we do to um either it just like makes your day better or improves some aspect of your health or mood or some something that's in our daily routines that we enjoy, um, I figured is kind of fun to to chat about. So, um I'll start with one that I was talking to you about a few days ago. Is I'm really trying to make sure I'm not sleeping the whole day away since I don't really have Much to do these days.

Peter
05:48-05:48
Sure.

Aubrey
05:49-06:38
So instead of like, I was trying to get up like around nine, um, where Hayden leaves for work at like eight, but gets up at like seven. So I usually wake up to Hayden's really, really loud Horrible sends you into like a Vietnam flashback like horrible alarm. Um That is like literally the worst thing I've ever heard in my life. I do wake up to that, and then I usually fall back asleep and can fall asleep until like I was trying to get up at like nine. every day, so I wasn't sleeping until like eleven. But then I was running into the problem where like in my room we have blackout curtains And so I wake up at 9, but not get up to open the curtains, so now I would just lay in bed till like 11 And then get up.

Peter
06:35-06:36
Mm-hmm.

Aubrey
06:38-08:23
And then finally, once the curtains are open, then I'm like, oh, the sunlight, you know. But being in just like the dark room with literally no lights. And just, it was just really hard for me, for me to get up. So, the little daily habit that I am now doing, and that it's also in the category of trying to get better at. is to just get up when Hayden has to get up for work because then I'm just up. I can have breakfast when he's having breakf And just like I'm up, I'm out of bed. The windows are open, the light is coming through because you know it's it'll be harder in the winter when it will be dark for a really long time, but right now it is light very early. So I get up, I'm just I'm awake. If I'm tired later, I can take a little afternoon nap, but I need to be getting up at like seven. And sometimes a little earlier 'cause we'll walk on the treadmill, which I can that's another little daily thing I could talk about as well. But That's the big thing is I just need to get my butt out of bed so that I do not just lay in bed and then just lay on my phone for hours and then I just feel 'cause then like I sleep in and then I just like don't have the energy, even though I may have slept. You know, a lot or more. I just don't have the energy to really do much. Like, I'll have tasks and errands I want to do, and I'm just like. I don't know, just feeling the weird, drowsy, you just slept too much, sort of feeling. And that doesn't help either. So, catching up on sleep is great, but I need to. I'm just just trying to not overdo it. There's always the fine line.

Peter
08:23-08:25
There there is a fine line.

Aubrey
08:24-08:31
So that's one of my things. But what what is one of your little daily habits that you tend to do?

Peter
08:32-08:38
You know, there's a lot of daily habits that I want to do and I want to do better.

Aubrey
08:37-08:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we could talk about that for sure.

Peter
08:38-09:37
So we can maybe talk about some of those as well. But there's a few, and I'll start with this one, and that is journaling in the morning. I journal by hand in the morning. And it's interesting because I'm probably going to be changing this up, which we'll talk about in the Habits We Want to Make section. But I get up and I have a little template that I kind of developed based on loosely the theme system journal. It's sort of a Layout that just allows for sort of freeform journaling. And I have developed for myself A set, you know, here's what each section's for, here's what I do. I'm kind of holding up something that maybe you can see.

Aubrey
09:35-09:37
Nice. Yeah.

Peter
09:38-10:08
That's my kind of day journal. I do one page of that in the morning. And generally, that's kind of my first thing I get out of bed. And so I give you the part of my morning routine that works, and then there's stuff I gotta work on But the part that for sure works is I get out of bed and I go out and I drink, usually it's a protein shake with a banana in it that I've mixed up the night before.

Aubrey
09:52-09:55
Mm-hmm. Right.

Peter
10:09-10:16
Just because I've, again, you know me, if I read something, then I'm like, oh, okay, there's evidence for it.

Aubrey
10:16-10:17
Yeah, yeah.

Peter
10:17-10:41
So. I always used to work out fasted, but there is some evidence to say that about 30 plus grams of protein and about 30 plus grams of carbs right before, you know, like 30 minutes before you work out. Is beneficial, and so I've started doing that. So I go out, I drink that, and then I drink my beetroot juice powder. Yay.

Aubrey
10:40-10:42
Yep, yummy.

Peter
10:41-10:58
And then I go upstairs and I journal. So that's kind of one of those morning habits that has become really useful for me. I have not missed journaling in some way, I think, a single day since 2025 started.

Aubrey
10:58-11:00
Yeah, that's crazy.

Peter
11:00-11:10
So it really has become something that I don't have to I mean, I sometimes if my morning routine is off, I'll have to be like, oh yeah, I still need to do that.

Aubrey
11:10-11:10
Mm-hmm.

Peter
11:10-11:17
But it's not one of those things where I have to say, oh, yeah, you gotta go do your journaling.

Aubrey
11:17-11:18
Right.

Peter
11:18-11:42
So so that's definitely a habit that's kind of a first thing in the morning thing that I see value in, that I feel has been useful and helpful, and that I stick to pretty I'm pretty hardcore about making sure that I get that done. And the few days where I don't get that done in the morning, I will absolutely do that at some point later in the day.

Aubrey
11:42-12:06
Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, all all we can kinda go back and forth. I my next thing would be I have been getting more consistent about journaling. Um, which I know when we did our last like journaling episode, I was like Yeah, I like it, but I haven't been doing it, but I have gotten back into it.

Peter
12:06-12:07
Excellent.

Aubrey
12:06-13:38
Um, I It is not necessarily like I specifically do it in the morning or night. I just kind of do it at least once during the day. Occasionally, I will do it like morning and night. If I'm extra on it and extra feeling it, um, but I have been doing that along with um meditating during the day as well. Because I will meditate at night all the time. Like, I basically don't miss a night meditating, um, almost always. But I have also been trying to do it during the day as well. Um, and then sometimes like I'll journal after I meditate to like kind of see how I was feeling if there was a specific Thought that was coming up a ton while I was meditating, you know, because there's always like you're trying to not think during the meditation. But sometimes there's just something that's always nagging you. So if there's if there's some thought that was really coming up, I'll journal about that. So I'm proud of myself for doing that because I really fell off there for a while. But like, I have a really pretty journal And a really nice pen that I like like I enjoy doing it. Like it's fun. And so when I do do it, then I'm like, oh, this is great. So I am proud of myself for being more consistent about that. So that is one thing that I have been doing at least once daily. So what about you?

Peter
13:37-13:38
Good.

Aubrey
13:38-13:39
What's another one for you?

Peter
13:38-14:43
Good. Well, I think I'm a little over three weeks now that I have made sure I've meditated at least ten minutes every day. And I've always been, not always, but I would say in the last five plus years, I've been an aspirational meditator In that, I knew that it would be beneficial, and I knew that there's good science even to back it up. So it's not just some make you feel better, you know. Placebo effect type thing. I mean, I think we talked about this when I brought it up if you maybe it was last time we recorded or the time before. I don't remember But because of that, because of that research that I did that really convinced me that it would be significantly beneficial, I have, yeah, I've made sure that every day Usually, what I try and do, I do the daily calm, which is about a 10-minute guided meditation, where there's about two-thirds of it.

Aubrey
14:30-14:30
Yeah.

Peter
14:43-14:59
is just breathing and meditating on your own. And then the last couple of minutes she'll kind of come in with Some topic to address and just sort of talk about while you're meditating.

Aubrey
14:48-14:48
Yeah.

Peter
14:59-15:19
I'm sure that there are Hardcore meditation gurus who would tell me I'm doing it wrong. And to them, I'd say the science would tell you to go suck it because the science says do it. It doesn't matter so much how you do it. So People who want to come at me, come at me. Cause I got science on my side, suck us.

Aubrey
15:20-15:27
I also have not heard of anyone being like a weird saying you're doing it wrong about meditating.

Peter
15:26-15:28
Oh, I have.

Aubrey
15:27-15:29
I don't know if you have encountered that.

Peter
15:28-15:29
I have.

Aubrey
15:29-15:29
Really?

Peter
15:29-15:34
Yeah, not in not in real life, like in physical, in meat space.

Aubrey
15:30-15:31
What?

Peter
15:34-16:01
But I've heard yeah, I've heard and read people online who basically say that if you don't do it in silence, just by yourself, that you're not really meditating, that that's how real meditation is done. And that was one of those things that, when I was doing that deep dive into meditation, I specifically looked at it to say: okay, is there a demonstrable difference in the benefits between guided meditation versus self-guided?

Aubrey
15:54-15:55
Yeah.

Peter
16:01-16:11
And I could not find any evidence to support claims that self-guided meditation is in any demonstrable way superior.

Aubrey
16:01-16:01
Yeah.

Peter
16:11-16:20
Everything basically came around to no, guided for most folks is going to be easier, especially in the beginning, because it helps you get into that practice.

Aubrey
16:18-16:21
Right, absolutely.

Peter
16:20-16:25
And then, if you get to a point where you want to do it on your own, then great, go for it.

Aubrey
16:26-16:26
Yeah.

Peter
16:26-16:42
But that there wasn't some, and I don't know, I think A few of the people that I've heard say it are coming at it with this, oh, they studied with some, you know, master, blah, blah, blah, who taught them how to do it, and yeah, and all this kind of stuff.

Aubrey
16:40-16:41
Hmm.

Peter
16:43-16:47
And I'm like, okay, well then at some point you had guidance.

Aubrey
16:47-16:48
Right.

Peter
16:48-17:12
So uh but yeah, so I I like the Daily Calm. I Don't, and maybe it's just been my bad luck. I was trying to do some Peloton meditations before bed, and I think it may have just been my bad luck that the 10-minute sleep meditations I was finding They all wanted to do conscious relaxation as you go to bed.

Aubrey
17:11-17:13
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Peter
17:12-17:28
And I actually, over the years, have gotten very good And with especially this meditation practice, I've gotten much better at being able to consciously relax my muscles without having to do the clenching first.

Aubrey
17:29-17:36
Yeah, yes and then relax, yeah.

Peter
17:29-17:51
But all of them, I was, it was like, okay, now tighten up your feet and then relax. And I was like, I found that that was actually giving me anxiety. They're like, I'm sitting here trying to tighten up, but not too much. But because I lift a lot and stuff, like I, when I tighten up my muscles, I mean, I'm like, I'll give myself a Charlie horse sometimes if I'm tightening up my muscles.

Aubrey
17:50-17:57
Right for sleep, yeah.

Peter
17:51-17:56
And so this is not conducive to preparing for sleep.

Aubrey
17:57-18:23
Yeah, I will say some of the I've done almost every ten minute sleep meditation on Peloton, probably s like going all the way back to like twenty twenty one. I think I've done every single one. by alm like every person too, um, like every instructor. And there are some that are big flops and there are some that are fantastic.

Peter
18:21-18:22
Yeah.

Aubrey
18:23-18:27
The ones that are fantastic I bookmark and just repeat those.

Peter
18:27-18:29
That's probably what I need to do.

Aubrey
18:27-18:50
I do enjoy the body scan. I don't enjoy when it is like you, they tell you to tense the like body part and then relax it I do enjoy just like the body scan where it's just like bring attention to that body part and then consciously relax it without having 'cause I agree that like tensing up, I'm like If I'm already relaxed, then now I'm becoming unrelaxed.

Peter
18:42-18:43
Yeah, totally.

Aubrey
18:50-18:57
And it's not like giving me a net positive relax because I'm just like, I don't know, it feels weird.

Peter
18:53-18:55
Mhm. That's true.

Aubrey
18:57-19:17
But But yeah, anyways. Yeah, that's funny that you've had you've seen people be like snobs about meditation. It feels like the least snobbable Thing is meditation, but there's snobs everywhere.

Peter
19:11-19:18
Oh, don't worry. I was gonna say, if there is something, there are people with extreme opinions about it.

Aubrey
19:18-19:20
Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Peter
19:20-19:27
So, but yeah, that's definitely been another big thing that I've incorporated over the last again, I think I'm up to a little over three weeks now.

Aubrey
19:21-20:25
Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, that's that's that's awesome. It's hard to get into, like when I've fallen out of it, it's hard to pick it back up again But being consistent about it, then I'm like, oh, this is good. I see the benefits. I see why I'm doing this. I just need to stick with it. But yeah, my my next one I will say is um taking my supplements is a daily habit I usually take my supplements at night just because I forget throughout the day, and that's just like the time that now my body is in my brain is like, okay, it's time to take supplements right now. Um, I just take my metamucil and creatine, and then I take magnesium and vitamin D and vitamin C. I don't know if the vitamin C is really doing much for me, but I can pretend it is, and it feels like it could, maybe, possibly So that's why I'm taking it.

Peter
20:25-20:26
That's pretty good.

Aubrey
20:25-20:31
I take my vitamin D because my doctor told me to because I'm a woman.

Peter
20:28-20:34
Yeah. And especially, you know, well, and come winter, you just aren't going to get enough sun.

Aubrey
20:34-20:51
Exactly. So, yep, that's why I take those. And I take those I take the minimucillincreatine first, and then I take all the pills, because it's a lot of pills, and it's hard for me to take a lot of pills at once I'll take all the pills and then I reward myself with this one sour patch kid to wash out wash down all the pills.

Peter
20:51-20:52
There you go.

Aubrey
20:52-20:55
That's how I take my supplement.

Peter
20:54-21:18
I love it. So that's one that I kind of struggle with sometimes. So I get up in the morning and I go out, and what I try and do is use the protein shake that's got the banana in it. To take down my morning supplements. Now, I'm a little older than you. So shall I give you the list?

Aubrey
21:16-21:20
What absolutely, let's hear the list.

Peter
21:19-21:25
Okay. So now most of these are two capsules, some of them are three.

Aubrey
21:24-21:25
Mhm.

Peter
21:25-21:37
So in the morning, there's a total of four capsules that theoretically are nitric oxide boosters.

Aubrey
21:25-21:37
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Peter
21:37-21:47
So those go in the morning. There's four of those. And then my multivitamin, I'm supposed to take four a day, and so I split and I do two in the morning and two at night.

Aubrey
21:46-21:48
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Peter
21:48-21:57
And then in the morning I do two supplements that's like an NAD booster that's supposed to be good for aging.

Aubrey
21:54-21:54
Mm-hmm.

Peter
21:58-22:31
And is that everything in the morning? That might be everything in the morning. So eight capsules in the morning. And then at night, it's the two more multivitamins. Two omega-3 capsules three pills three that is like a men's health blah blah blah thing Two probiotics and an ashwagandha.

Aubrey
22:22-22:22
Yeah.

Peter
22:31-22:34
That's if I don't do the turmeric.

Aubrey
22:37-22:40
So that's already eighteen a day.

Peter
22:40-22:55
So part of the problem is, is some of those I used to do like the three men's health support ones. I used to do that in the morning. And I found that it was really making me nauseated if I took that and then I didn't eat.

Aubrey
22:55-22:55
Yes.

Peter
22:55-22:59
So the morning ones and the protein shake wasn't enough.

Aubrey
22:59-23:00
Yeah.

Peter
22:59-23:06
So I move that one to the evening, and I'll take that like before I eat dinner. I'll take that big old pile of them.

Aubrey
23:06-23:07
Mm-hmm.

Peter
23:06-23:09
So then dinner pushes that all down.

Aubrey
23:08-23:09
Yeah, yeah.

Peter
23:09-23:25
In the morning, usually, if I so the the this the path is to go out and it's to do the protein shake and all those and then mix up the nitric oxide slash hibiscus tea slash metamucil for the morning.

Aubrey
23:18-23:25
Mm-hmm. Right.

Peter
23:25-23:45
And that's usually got enough Body to it that it'll push that down. But if not, you know how I treat myself to get my supplements all the way down? I have two baby carrots. So I grab one or two baby carrots out of the fridge and I chomp those puppies up and just use that to get them down.

Aubrey
23:39-23:48
Two baby carrots. Yeah. I will say if I have raspberries, I'll have a raspberry.

Peter
23:48-23:49
There you go.

Aubrey
23:48-23:54
But raspberries have been really pissing me off lately because I've been buying them and then they get moldy immediately.

Peter
23:52-23:54
And then they go bad. Yep.

Aubrey
23:54-24:12
Even though if I like remember I have them Like I'll have multiple a day. Like I can go through one carton a day. It's just lately I've been buying them and they'll go bad like thirty minutes later, even if I inspect every berry before I buy it.

Peter
24:10-24:22
Yep. I'll be honest and tell you that when it comes to berries I have reached a point that unless I am buying them fresh to go home and immediately do something with them.

Aubrey
24:22-24:23
Mhm.

Peter
24:23-24:25
That will help preserve them.

Aubrey
24:25-24:26
Yeah.

Peter
24:26-24:28
Then I just buy frozen berries now.

Aubrey
24:28-24:29
Yeah. Yeah.

Peter
24:29-24:36
Like No, raspberries are awesome.

Aubrey
24:29-24:37
I just I raspberries I think are like my favorite fruit and so it is so sad. to buy them and then see them moldy.

Peter
24:38-24:38
Yeah.

Aubrey
24:38-24:41
Yeah. So I've been really angry at them.

Peter
24:39-25:00
Oh, I I was going to mention, and then right before bed is when I do my magnesium and the second dose of metamucil And then after the workout is when I slam back the 30 ounces of water with the 15 grams of creatine and the electrolytes.

Aubrey
24:47-25:15
Yes. Right. And the electrolytes, yes, yep. I will say the magnesium is Four pills on its own. So I'm not just a little wuss for saying, I have to wash down my pills because it is a lot of pills. It's four just for the magnesium, which is a lot.

Peter
25:12-25:20
It is. Yeah. My magnesium is just three. So I can, again, the metamucil is usually enough to wash that magnesium down all the way.

Aubrey
25:20-25:21
Wash it down.

Peter
25:21-25:31
And if not, then there's another baby carrot in the fridge for me Yeah.

Aubrey
25:24-25:31
Yeah. Yeah, the supplements the supplements are brutal, but Yeah.

Peter
25:32-25:52
I'm really good at The creatine and the beetroot juice mix, like the drinking. It's just sometimes I'm thinking about pouring those eight pills in my hand and then I just like eight to ten capsules doesn't matter. They all go in the mouth at once and down the hatch.

Aubrey
25:51-25:55
At one time. Oh, that's horrible.

Peter
25:53-25:56
All of them. All of them at once. Yep.

Aubrey
25:56-25:57
That's horrible.

Peter
25:57-26:01
I don't want to prolong the agony. So it's just a handful.

Aubrey
26:00-26:00
Yeah.

Peter
26:02-26:11
In fact, the biggest problem I have sometimes is getting them all in my mouth. Sometimes I'm like. Oh, and like one falls down on the floor, and I got to chase it or something stupid like that.

Aubrey
26:07-26:09
It will fall out, yeah.

Peter
26:11-26:23
So Well, so here's the thing.

Aubrey
26:13-26:33
That's so brutal. I like just take w two pills at a time because I just can't I just can't do more than that. I don't know It's pretty thick, feels like.

Peter
26:23-26:33
The if I'm using the nitric oxide hibiscus metamucil thing to wash stuff down You don't you don't well, you don't stop that.

Aubrey
26:33-26:37
Or not thick, but yeah, you just kinda glug glug.

Peter
26:37-26:43
That's the thing. You don't stop that because it's gross. And if I stop it, I'm not going to start it again.

Aubrey
26:42-26:42
Yeah.

Peter
26:43-26:44
So that's one of those.

Aubrey
26:44-26:45
True.

Peter
26:44-26:57
And then the protein shake and the banana. Like, I don't enjoy it. So, I just would rather just again open it up, all the pills in my mouth, and then just chug until that's gone, and then I'm done.

Aubrey
26:49-26:52
Yeah. Knock it back.

Peter
26:57-27:00
It's all about efficiency.

Aubrey
26:59-27:08
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Oh, it's giving me the heebie dbs a little bit thinking about all those.

Peter
27:05-27:06
Yeah.

Aubrey
27:08-27:46
Oh, man. Well, for my my next one that I actually do, and then I think we can maybe go to the things we want to do, 'cause I have many I want to do One of the things I do enjoy that, again, I don't know if it actually has any crazy health benefits or anything, but it is enjoyable, is having. some sleepy time herbal tea at night, having like I know you hate sipping on warm drinks, so this doesn't appeal to you, but It appeals to me.

Peter
27:37-28:47
I do. No. It like actively, you know, pushes me away and and I don't want to say it offends me, but it it, you know Excellent.

Aubrey
27:46-28:51
Yeah. Right. Well, I love having having something warm to sip on is great to make it feel like a cozy oot, it's time to it's time to go to bed sort of thing. So helping me make sure I can actually get sleepy at night. I've been getting I got this like honey lavender, you know, it's like stress relief, whatever, herbal tea. We also got this um What was it? It's like elderberry and lemon balm for immune support and stress relief or something Something like that. Again, I don't know if it actually does anything for immune support, but I don't care because it is yummy and I love having my sleepy time tea at night So that is my fun little like, you know, I get to sip on a yummy drink before going to bed, so I've been enjoying doing that. I love having a warm Drink to sip on. I know that disgusts disgusts you, but it's okay.

Peter
28:49-28:52
It does. No, it really, r really does.

Aubrey
28:52-29:00
Has it for your whole life, or was that something you Like, grew into. Like, did you not ever like hot chocolate as a kid?

Peter
28:57-29:15
Um I think I did. I think I liked I think I I mean, look, you say it has been I'm almost okay, so it's been at least 30 years.

Aubrey
29:02-29:03
You think.

Peter
29:15-29:34
So I remember disliking hot beverages far more than I remember possibly liking them I mean, I'm sure that as a kid I have memories of doing youth activities where we went tubing and then we had hot cocoa and donuts or something like that afterwards.

Aubrey
29:33-29:34
Yeah, yeah.

Peter
29:34-30:27
I don't remember finding it offensive then. And so I really think when it happened was when I was on my mission. because it was so hot and so humid, and they would still then give us this boiling hot cup of disgusting cereal beverage Anyone who's old enough would remember things, and they probably don't listen to this podcast, if you're old enough to remember Pero or Postum. Pero and postum were two sort of cereal based, toasted, ground, equival like alternatives to coffee. And they're gross. And people in Guatemala, because they drink so much coffee, a lot of them would then use these cereal beverages and they all loved them, and so they assumed that we would love them, and they gave them to us.

Aubrey
30:26-30:27
Right.

Peter
30:27-30:50
And the only way I could choke that garbage down Was literally like three heaping tablespoons of sugar into each one and stir it up so that it was like a syrup. And then I could chug the syrup and just make it go away. And so I think that was really what happened is the only hot drinks I ever got were disgusting.

Aubrey
30:50-30:51
Yeah, that makes sense.

Peter
30:51-31:49
And so I got to the point where I just drank things really fast and I didn't enjoy the idea of sitting there sipping off beverage because I'm like I'm sweating my balls off. Like sweat is salting this beverage you've given me because it's pouring off of my face. And I'm supposed to sit here and just be like, hmm. This is delightful. I'm like, no, give me some ice cold water. Oh, but you know what I can't have because I'm in frickin' Guatemala? Ice. So every drink I ever had was either hot or room temperature, except the very few times you could go to a store and buy something cold. And even then, Their idea of cold was nowhere near what ours was because they have this crazy belief, I'm not even kidding you, that if it's hot and you drank something that was too cold, your bones would shatter.

Aubrey
31:34-32:02
Yeah. What what What?

Peter
31:50-32:04
That was a legitimate like I had for two years I had Guatemalans who be like, oh, it's too hot for something cold today, Elder. It will make your bones shatter. I'm not even kidding you.

Aubrey
32:02-32:06
That is crazy. That is crazy.

Peter
32:05-32:12
So I think because I really like cold things and I didn't get them very much for two years, and even when I did, they weren't that cold.

Aubrey
32:11-32:11
Yeah.

Peter
32:12-32:17
And I didn't enjoy the hot, that now I get home and I'm like Give me something hot give me something hot?

Aubrey
32:13-32:15
Yeah. Yeah.

Peter
32:17-32:23
No, thank you. Give me something cold? Yes, and I will probably drink it and drink it fast, because I want that rush of cold.

Aubrey
32:24-32:25
You know, that's fair.

Peter
32:25-32:26
I tried.

Aubrey
32:25-32:27
That's f that's quite fair.

Peter
32:27-32:28
I tried, Aubrey.

Aubrey
32:27-32:29
I believe you, yeah.

Peter
32:29-33:02
I, you know, I would get so jealous of Just freezing cold New England mornings and going into the hospital between four and five o'clock in the morning, and all of my other resident colleagues are sitting there. Just like holding on to their hot cup of coffee or tea as if it was giving them their very will to live. And I wanted something like that, even if it was just Kind of the ritualistic nature of it.

Aubrey
33:01-33:02
Yeah, right.

Peter
33:02-33:30
And so I got a bunch of different kinds of herbal teas and I would open them and I would smell the tea bag and I go, that smells good. And I would steep it and then I would drink it, and I'm like, that's dirty grass water that barely tastes like this blueberry or peach or lemon or orange or whatever the crap it was. And so I just, you know, I said, it's not for me. I will never be a hot beverage person.

Aubrey
33:30-33:32
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.

Peter
33:32-33:39
And now I just embrace it because if anything, it makes me weird and I can go on psychot slightly psychotic rants like I just went on.

Aubrey
33:39-33:40
Exactly, exactly.

Peter
33:39-33:41
So, you know.

Aubrey
33:40-33:43
It just is it's personality, you know.

Peter
33:43-33:52
It is at this point. But I will tell you, it was one of the things that I so loved about Ted Lasso is I immediately identified with Ted Lasso the first time.

Aubrey
33:50-33:53
Mm yes.

Peter
33:53-33:58
And like I was recently watching rewatching an episode just because I needed the feel goods.

Aubrey
33:58-33:59
Mm-hmm.

Peter
33:59-34:22
And I remember him asking somebody about that. He asked So, T, y'all are just making this up, right? Y'all, this is all just a big joke. You don't really like this. And I think it was Roy Kent was like, Ew, often love it. You know, and I just, well Incomprehensible to me. Incomprehensible.

Aubrey
34:20-34:23
Yeah, that's fair. That is fair.

Peter
34:22-34:27
So, well, I don't know if I really have.

Aubrey
34:23-34:25
That is super fair.

Peter
34:27-35:49
I mean, there's a few others, but there's I mean, I do, my daily ones, because we've talked about the weekly ones, and I still maintain a lot of those. But there are a few that I'm working on developing now, and a couple things that I'm on a sort of Challenge myself to do. So, I'm going to give you these kind of wrapped up with just all of them together with one little bow And that is sort of my wind down and get going routine that I really want to habituate and make more. Make more consistent. So, this is starting, this is coming from a place, and this is actually going to be okay. So, here's on the side. As since we talked last time, my secret project, Imperfect Practice, that is the first big post explaining will soon be going up. I have a second written. I'm starting to work on the first couple of videos, and I have ideas and have started writing out scripts for some of the first things I'm going to be doing. But one of the ones that I'm going to be doing, and a thought that I had, is Part of what I'm going to be doing is, I'm going to be doing 30-day challenges for myself where I introduce something, say it's a different tool or whatever, and say, hey, look, I'm going to use this for this for 30 days Here's a quick overview of why.

Aubrey
35:38-35:40
Mm, okay.

Peter
35:49-36:32
30 days later, we'll do the deep dive and see how it went. And one of those is: I'm going to set up 30 days. Where I don't touch my cell phone in bed at all. Like, I don't touch it in bed. So what do I use it for? I mean, I've gotten into that habit like I think so many of us where, and I don't do it for very long, but maybe five or ten minutes I get in bed and I look at Instagram or Reddit or something. And in the morning, I wake up, and there's always, you know, 20-plus emails that came in through the night, and most of them I'm going to just delete.

Aubrey
36:30-36:31
Yeah.

Peter
36:32-36:38
And so I go in to delete those, and then the next thing you know, now I've looked at Instagram or I read it or something like that.

Aubrey
36:36-36:37
Yeah.

Peter
36:38-37:01
And so I'm going to create a situation where I don't touch it in bed, but I start the little sleep noises and everything. Actually, I'm going to do that before I climb in bed. And then, because I do sleep with one of my Apple watches, I have a day watch, I have a night watch, it's a thing.

Aubrey
37:03-37:04
Right, right, of course.

Peter
37:03-37:05
I know. I know, right?

Aubrey
37:05-37:06
A day and a night watch.

Peter
37:08-37:39
Well, my Apple Watch Ultra is bigger and heavier and it's kind of clunky and it's a couple it's like three years old now, so the battery isn't as good. And so I have an Apple Watch Series 10 that doesn't have cellular and everything, that's just a Wi-Fi one that's a lot thinner and a lot smaller. And so that's the bed watch, that's the night watch that sneak tracks and then is my alarm and stuff in the morning. And then, but so I can turn my alarm off with that, so I don't need that And so that's part of it.

Aubrey
37:32-37:36
Yeah. Don't have to get on, yeah.

Peter
37:39-38:40
But the other thing I want to do is I want to minimize as much as possible the use of my phone in the time before bed, somewhere between at the very least 30, if not 60 minutes. And I kind of want to get away from screens that emit light for that time period as well. So, this is where I think my journaling habit may change. Usually, I journal on the computer at night where it's more of a faster kind of brain dump. I actually dictate it most of the time just to get the thoughts out quickly. But I also had this idea of w would it be useful in the evening before I go to bed to help clear the mind, to sit down with like a piece of paper, or again in my case, using one of the e ink Not necessarily backlit, but front lit, so it's a wider light. Using that to write down kind of a task list for the next day.

Aubrey
38:40-38:41
Yeah.

Peter
38:41-39:26
And I've had a hard time remembering to do that because, again, I do my handwriting in the morning and then the journaling at night usually is on the computer. So I've been thinking about changing this around so that in the morning I'll do a prep sort of journal entry for the morning on the computer. I can then take that handwritten task list and make sure it's into OmniFocus, my current task manager, which we'll see if that sticks. There's going to be a challenge about that, too. But do that in the morning and then in the evening, once I hit that like 60 to 90 minutes 30 to 60 minutes of no No blue light is what I'm trying to avoid.

Aubrey
39:25-39:26
Mm-hmm.

Peter
39:26-39:49
Then, what I'll do is I will handwrite my journaling in the evening. And since I'll already be using that e device, I will then also be more inclined to do that brain dump task list. Sort of plan for the next day, but I will be avoiding a screen.

Aubrey
39:49-39:51
Yeah, totally.

Peter
39:50-39:54
So I think that's a habit that I want to work on.

Aubrey
39:54-39:54
Yeah.

Peter
39:54-40:02
And kind of establish. So that's going to be kind of one of the next things that I experiment with and practice and see how it goes.

Aubrey
40:02-41:47
Yeah, I actually that's one of my things that I want to be more consistent with as well is To just like read my book or something before I fall asleep rather than having like the last thing I be doing is like look at my phone, even if it's not for even if I'm not like doing anything actively on my phone Like my lamp turns off with an app on my phone because it's like one of the color whatever fancy light bulbs. Like, I don't know Maybe I switch it for like one of the little remote things where you can just turn off the lamp on that, or something like that, where I don't have to open up my phone to do anything. And like make sure my alarm is set again, yeah, like way earlier beforehand, so that at least, you know, 20 to 30 minutes before I actually close my eyes, I've just been like reading or journaling or something like that, 'cause it j there's like so much evidence that seeing a screen Before you go to bed, like ruins your sleep. My one of my classes I took my last semester was my Nightscapes class. which is basically just about light pollution. Um and one of the first few classes was the professor was like, If you don't take anything else away from this class, have the one thing that you take away is To get rid of any and all light while you are trying to sleep. Like tiny little flashing lights on like a monitor, cover it up with like cardboard. Literally anything. Like. it is so having like people who fall asleep with like the T V on ruins your sleep.

Peter
41:45-41:47
Oh yeah. I don't know how they do that.

Aubrey
41:47-42:42
Ruins your sleep. Like having things be and and right beforehand, like it just messes up everything so yeah I agree I'm trying to trying to do that as well but I'm also trying to one of the other things I'm trying to do um trying to implement daily is to do like a morning treadmill walk or walk outside or something in the morning to like start off the day. Um, Hayden and I have been doing it a little bit where 'Cause we both hate running so much. Um so so so so so much but again trying to implement cardio is rough during like our lifting days when we're actually at the gym 'cause it's after Hayden's at work and We go later, and so we're not done till like 7 p. m. And then thinking of doing cardio then is just like a not no but hell no sort of situation.

Peter
42:41-42:43
Oh, one hundred per cent.

Aubrey
42:44-44:03
Um, so we've been trying to do it in the morning. And since we have no gym in our apartment, it's super easy to just go downstairs and hop on the treadmill. And we will do like an incline walk. It's either 10% like 10 to 12% incline. So really crank it up. Um, and then try and keep your heart rate in between like the one thirty to one forty range, couldn't like for like twenty to thirty min Because that was the prime spot for cardio, whatever. I don't know. Hayden did the research on it. I didn't. So I want to be able to do that every day. It's been hard to do it every day because I'm like, bah, I just want to sleep for like another hour. Don't make me do this. But we're getting more consistent about it. And I think just making sure, like, sleep health is really good, where I'm not Again, I'm not looking at a screen right before bed, which means I fall asleep faster, which means I go to bed earlier, which means it's easier to wake up earlier, which means it's easi to do the morning thing, you know. It all goes in a nice in a nice cycle. But yeah, that's one of the things I'm trying to do. The other day, I actually got up and went on a hike by myself, like a five-mile hike by myself.

Peter
44:03-44:05
Oh, wow, nice.

Aubrey
44:04-44:19
which I was proud of myself because it was my first like solo hike. I went to in Madison they have a I don't know how to say it Ar arbore arboretum arboretum.

Peter
44:18-45:02
Arboretum You know, nice.

Aubrey
44:19-45:02
Yes. Like where they plant, you know, a bunch of plants and stuff literally for the purpose of research and studying. And they have a massive um spacious plot of land. I don't know how many acres. But it was beautiful. It's just like foresty. So much so many plants and flowers and things to look at. Um little critters and stuff to look at. So I went on one of those basically as soon as I woke up and I was like, this is great. I should just get out and touch grass in the morning. I should just do this more often So, yeah, I'm trying to be more consistent about doing the cardio thing in the morning. Yeah.

Peter
45:02-45:03
Cool.

Aubrey
45:03-45:04
Yeah.

Peter
45:04-45:05
I think that's it for me.

Aubrey
45:05-45:24
Yeah. Yeah, there feels like there could be a million things. Like everything that I do daily, I'm also trying to be better at. do more consistently and add, you know, things here and there. So it's like the things I am doing also kind of count as the things I want to be doing still, you know?

Peter
45:24-45:29
Well, you know, I I so I recently finished Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Aubrey
45:25-45:25
So.

Peter
45:29-46:44
It's a Pretty well-known, you know, habit book, and I think that it was decent. I don't think it's the be-all end-all, but I think it It's an easy read that helped give me some thoughts about ways I could Tie habits together or kind of create cues for myself. So, for example, and this will be my last thing, but one really easy thing that I did is I so I set up a little Apple Watt or excuse me, an Apple Music playlist, okay? And I called it Hype Time. And the Apple Music playlist, it only has a couple songs on it. And what I was able to do to make it even easier, again, this is the whole point, is to remove friction. So I went into the shortcuts app on the iPhone. I built a shortcut, and all the shortcut does is play that playlist. And then what I did is you can put a shortcut on the home screen as an icon.

Aubrey
46:44-46:45
Yeah.

Peter
46:45-47:05
So I have, I don't know if you can see if it will pick it up, but there's a little icon that's actually little metal horns with a headphone on them And when I tap that right there on the home screen, and it just starts playing this playlist.

Aubrey
46:47-47:06
Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Nice. Yeah.

Peter
47:06-47:09
Well, that's it. That's all it does.

Aubrey
47:07-47:08
Yeah.

Peter
47:09-47:24
But what I have it set up for is So basically, it's once I've done my journaling in the morning and it's time for me to go down and work out.

Aubrey
47:13-47:25
Oh, nice. Mm-hmm.

Peter
47:24-47:26
Boom, I hit that.

Aubrey
47:26-47:26
Yeah.

Peter
47:27-47:32
And then as I'm walking downstairs, that's playing, and I'm getting excited.

Aubrey
47:30-47:31
Mhm.

Peter
47:32-47:41
And what I'm hoping to do over time is that it creates this trigger so that's like When I hear that music, I'm like, oh, yeah, it's time.

Aubrey
47:40-47:41
Mhm.

Peter
47:41-47:42
Let's go.

Aubrey
47:42-47:45
Yeah, that's awesome.

Peter
47:44-48:03
So, that was, I think, where the book was interesting: just getting ideas about how I can try and cue things. Create cues for myself? How can I tie habits together? And what sort of things could I do in terms of adjusting my environment a little bit To help encourage good habits.

Aubrey
48:01-48:02
Yeah.

Peter
48:04-48:13
So, again, that was where this thought was: okay, maybe I should switch my handwriting journaling at night because that's already a habit.

Aubrey
48:04-48:11
Right. Mm-hmm.

Peter
48:14-48:21
But the nightly wind down and the quick jotting down the task list to get things out of my head, that's not a habit.

Aubrey
48:21-48:21
Mhm.

Peter
48:21-48:28
So if I tie those two together, it's going to be easier for that second habit to become sticky.

Aubrey
48:26-48:28
Right, yeah.

Peter
48:28-48:33
So, you know, good book. I mean, again, it didn't blow any, it didn't blow my mind.

Aubrey
48:31-48:31
Yeah.

Peter
48:34-48:39
I think that it's. And it goes down very easy. It's a very easy book to read.

Aubrey
48:39-48:39
Yeah.

Peter
48:39-48:59
And it just gives some good ideas about: all right, where can I create friction? For bad habits, and where I can remove friction for good habits. So I'll be honest, while we were sitting here talking and we're talking about You mentioned the lights, and I thought, oh gosh, yeah, our lights in our bedroom are Philip Smart Hue, our smart lights.

Aubrey
48:59-48:59
Mm-hmm.

Peter
49:00-49:16
And the way to turn that off is I have a shortcut on my home screen so it's faster. I don't even have to like dig in or anything, but do I want to get the little hue little round Hugh remote that I can just have in the bedside?

Aubrey
49:14-49:16
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Peter
49:16-49:21
That I can use that to s turn it off or turn it on, and again, I don't have to use my phone.

Aubrey
49:21-49:22
Right.

Peter
49:21-49:29
I could do the same thing where I could set that shortcut as like a complication on the watch face, and I could tap it and turn it off there.

Aubrey
49:27-49:29
Yeah.

Peter
49:29-49:39
But just that idea of, all right, I want to make it I want to make it easier to not pick up my phone.

Aubrey
49:39-49:39
Right.

Peter
49:39-49:46
Okay, so I can spend 20 bucks and get something that will make it make that easier.

Aubrey
49:43-49:47
Make it easier for that, yeah. Totally.

Peter
49:47-50:07
So I think that's part of what habits are all about. Eden asked me about it on the middle of culture, and I think the way I described it, and I think that it was, look, I'll say, I think it was a pretty smart little comparison. And it worked for me as a biology/slash scientist person to think of it this way.

Aubrey
50:03-50:07
Yeah. Yeah.

Peter
50:07-50:18
And that is, I think what habits are, habits are like enzymes. Right? Everything we do in our day, it's like it's all just a chemical reaction. And what do enzymes do?

Aubrey
50:17-50:18
Yeah.

Peter
50:18-50:45
Well, they bring those substrates together Make it so that it takes a lot less energy for the chemical reaction to happen. So, as we create habits, that's what we're doing. It's not that we don't still have to put energy into making it happen, because Eden'd asked me if, like, things if truly habits for me could become automatic? And the answer is no. They still require some thought, but it becomes a lot less thought.

Aubrey
50:41-50:44
Yeah. Yeah.

Peter
50:45-50:51
And it's there's there's not that resistance where you have the thought and then you got to push through the resistance to get there.

Aubrey
50:46-50:46
Right.

Peter
50:51-51:04
And so I think that's what we can do. If we can find ways to smooth out those rough edges for good habits, tie them together, again, decrease the activation energy needed.

Aubrey
51:04-51:04
Yes.

Peter
51:04-51:13
They become easier to do. Likewise, with bad habits, it's how can we make them more difficult? How can we make them more inconvenient?

Aubrey
51:11-51:16
Right. Increase increase the resistance to doing those, yeah.

Peter
51:14-51:18
Increase the resistance, but yeah.

Aubrey
51:17-51:25
Yep. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's everything I had for me as well. So I also forgot an astrofact today 'cause I'm silly.

Peter
51:25-51:32
You know what, we've talked plenty about habits, and there's there's some science from both of us in there.

Aubrey
51:32-51:42
Exactly. The one thing I will say is, um, I was this is a bit of a downer, but you know, this is just this State of the world right now.

Peter
51:41-51:42
Oh boy.

Aubrey
51:42-51:50
Um, is I was going to get my article published on like the Astrophysics Data Server, like the official one.

Peter
51:42-51:43
Yep.

Aubrey
51:50-51:57
But that costs thousands of dollars to do, and we have no grant funding because the funding was cut.

Peter
51:57-51:58
Of course it was.

Aubrey
51:58-52:17
So it means that I have to publish it on a different server that is or a different journal that's still refereed and still very cool and the editor is still a very big name in cosmology and very cool and whatever. But it means I don't get to do it on the Astrophysics Data server because our President sucks. Ass. So that's all.

Peter
52:15-52:18
If that was all he sucked, that would be good.

Aubrey
52:17-52:27
If that was all, but yeah, so that's all. Anyways, on that lovely note.

Peter
52:22-52:26
Okay. On that lovely, lively little note, then.

Aubrey
52:28-52:45
Anyways, but no. I do I I like hearing about um your fun little habits that you do 'cause it is always a little you know, motivational and inspiring for me to be able to be like, you know what? I can do the habit I wanted to do. So I like I like chatting about it.

Peter
52:44-52:45
There you go.

Aubrey
52:46-52:55
And I want to get back into doing like our like the goals that we've Talked about so many times doing our reflecting and stuff weekly, so I gotta get on that.

Peter
52:55-54:18
Well, and you know, like I say, hopefully I'm working on, again, sort of building up some content so that when I really start saying, hey, I've got a few different things up on both the newsletter and the channel, but anybody who's interested, please go and sign up for free at imperfect-practice. com. And then you'll start getting the newsletter if you want, or you'll know about articles when they go live. And again, I'm going to, at the end of the day, today, my goal is to have the first Initial kind of what is the site for? A little bit more than just that little about blurb that I shared with you last time. This is more like 1,300 words of Know kind of what's going into it. And then an interesting article, at least I think it's interesting, about why I felt the need to do this. And I don't want to we've we've kind of gone long enough that I'm not going to go into it here but I'm going to send you that And I'd like to be interested to hear your thoughts about, you know, the first article is more what the purpose of the site and the YouTube channel are. The second article is Why is the realization I had as a 49-year-old man?

Aubrey
54:19-54:19
Yeah.

Peter
54:19-54:21
Why did I feel the need to do this?

Aubrey
54:21-54:23
Yeah, absolutely.

Peter
54:21-54:23
And so that stuff's going to be going up soon.

Aubrey
54:23-54:24
Send it over.

Peter
54:24-54:40
And then I'm going to be starting my first challenge, August 1, where I'm going to. It's gonna hurt. I'm going to take a break from my beloved SuperNote e-ink device, and I'm going to use the remarkable Paper Pro.

Aubrey
54:37-54:38
Wow.

Peter
54:41-54:51
For all of everything I use this for, for notes, journaling, for my what I call my morning pages, my three daily handwritten pages, that kind of stuff.

Aubrey
54:41-54:48
Okay. Yeah.

Peter
54:51-54:54
I'm going to do it all on the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Aubrey
54:54-54:59
K Yeah.

Peter
54:54-55:00
To try it and see, does that work? Do I like it? And find out.

Aubrey
55:00-55:01
All right, we will find out.

Peter
55:00-55:07
So, bye.

Aubrey
55:01-55:10
Okay, well, thanks for chatting with me, and we will see everyone in a few weeks. Bye