173： The Man Diet ｜ Chad Howse
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Summary
Chad House is the founder of Chad House Fitness and the author of The Man Diet. He has been on a mission over the past several years to reclaiming what it means to be a man, and reclaiming his goals and objectives. In this episode, we talk about the benefits of incorporating the man diet into your life, why intermittent fasting works so well, the keys to developing testosterone naturally, and why you should consider incorporating it into your daily routine.
Transcript
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There is no shortage of diet and nutrition advice out there. Most of it is hype, it's gimmicky,
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extremely biased, and untested and unfounded. It's no wonder though, as most of us are after
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the quick fix to a lifetime of making bad food and exercise choices. Today, I'm joined by my
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guest, Chad House, the author of The Man Diet, to talk about why these other diets fail and why a
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man's approach to what he eats should be relatively simple. We talk about the specific benefits of
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incorporating this style of nutrition into your life, why intermittent fasting works so well,
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keys to developing testosterone naturally and safely, a society's emasculation of men,
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and why you should consider incorporating the man diet into your life.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not
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easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are.
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This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler,
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and I am the host and the founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. As always, whether you're here for
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the first time or have been around for years, I want to welcome you to what I at least consider
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the best show available for men. Whether you're trying to improve your relationship, your fitness,
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your business, your bank account, the relationships you have with your kids, whatever it may be,
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we've got the tools, the resources, and specifically, we've got the conversations that will help you
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level up your life. We've had interviews with guys like Jocko Willink, Lewis Howes, Andy Frisilla,
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Grant Cardone, Ryan Holiday, Tim Kennedy. The list just goes on and on and on. And of course,
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including our guest today, Mr. Chad House. I'm excited for this one. Now, before I get into the
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conversation, I do want to just make a quick mention of our show sponsors. A lot of you guys know
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that over the past roughly two months now, I have been involved with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,
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which has been a painful experience, a humbling certainly experience, but it's also been an
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adventure. It's also been something that has helped me build my level of confidence in myself and gives
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me the ability to more adequately protect myself and those I care about. Now, of course, this is a
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long journey, but one of the things that I've been excited about is my show sponsors and my friends
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over at Origin because I use their rash guards, I use their geese, I use their lifestyle apparel,
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and then I also use their nutritional supplemental lineup that is partnered up with Jocko. So I use
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their protein as well, which is called MULC. So guys, if you haven't checked it out, make sure you
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All right, guys, with that said, let's get into the conversation. We've got a powerful one. Like
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I mentioned earlier, my guest is somebody that I've been following and paying attention to for
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quite some time. A lot of you probably have as well. We only recently connected with the release
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of his latest book, which he sent to me. It's called the man diet. He has been on a mission over
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the past several years of reclaiming what it means to be a man and his goals and objectives are very
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much in alignment with what we are doing here with the order of man. He is the founder of Chad
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house fitness and average to alpha. And today he is here to talk about that new book and the power
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of incorporating what he has dubbed the man diet. Chad, what's up brother. Thanks for joining me on
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the show today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, you bet. I've been following you for quite a while,
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but I think we just got introduced what, I don't know, maybe a couple of months or so ago,
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but I had been following you up to then. And so I'm glad to be able to have this conversation.
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I've been following you for a while as well, mainly on the Instagram,
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which is the biggest time waster on the planet, but it can be, I've spent a lot more time over
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there and things have really grown on Instagram for sure. But yeah, it can definitely be a distraction
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if you're not careful with it. I like getting a tidbit or two and then getting off it.
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Well, that's like anything though, right? Anything can become a distraction and deter you from what you know,
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you should be doing if you allow it. Exactly. It's got a time and a place.
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Yeah, for sure. So the man diet, man, that's your new book. I was actually really intrigued. Speaking
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of Instagram, I made a post cause you had sent me the book and I appreciate you sending it over.
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And then I had made a post about the book and that post actually did really, really well. So I know
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this is something that resonates with a lot of guys, or at least they're interested in. I guess my
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first question is, is there really a difference between the quote unquote man diet and a woman's diet?
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Yeah. It's not really about the man or the woman. It's purely about testosterone. So when you're
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looking at increasing testosterone, which is what a lot of guys should be focusing on,
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there are definitely things that you need to focus on and women don't have that,
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that need like men do. So they just don't really need to focus on the same things that men need to
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focus on. They can eat the same foods, but they're not going to get the same benefits that men will get.
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I mean, ultimately that's the chemical inside of us that makes men, men, right?
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Yeah. A hundred percent. It makes our brains different. It makes us
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grow different genitalia. It makes us act different and everything.
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And this is really interesting when we have these conversations about gender identity and how we
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identify. And it's like, you know, this is biology. This, this debate was settled long ago that this
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is biological. I mean, there's certain chemicals and conditions and hardwiring inside of our bodies
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that make us men and women, women. Yeah. I don't understand why people fight so hard against
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this. I've been thinking about this. Like, I don't think it's the people going through this
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stuff. I think they're confused. And I think they like, not to sound pandering or anything,
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but I think they need help or they need some guidance or they need some clarity. And the ones
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that are removing that ability to find clarity are the ones making a muck of this conversation.
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You know what I mean? Like, it's not even the people going through it that are making the most
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noise. It seems to be certain people in the education system and politics that are making
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the most noise and messing it up for everyone. Yeah. That's a really good point because I can
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tell you, I get messages every single week from guys who grew up without father figures in their
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home, really struggled when it came to other masculine role models in their lives. And they know
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there's a problem. They've identified that there's a problem here and they need to figure this
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stuff out. I have very few people who say, you're just a man, if you're born a man. And more often
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than not, it's the guys that say, you know, I know I need to learn about masculinity. I know I need
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to develop this inside of me. That's, that's more what I get than the other way around.
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Yeah. There's people making a massive, an argument that shouldn't be an argument.
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We should be the best men we can be in the best women we could be period.
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Yeah. And we're supposed to operate that way. You know, the things that we can do as men
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aren't generally women aren't as good at some of those things and vice versa, the things that women
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can do, men are generally not as good as some of those things. Well, you look at, uh, what was that?
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It was done in Sweden or Finland. Have you seen that kind of social experiment? No, I haven't.
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They tried to, uh, remove the financial incentives for different jobs. And they tried to make
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every gender, like both, both genders, both genders go into different professions that wouldn't
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naturally be their profession. So like mechanics were paid the same as nurses and all this stuff.
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So when they removed the financial incentives, it was a government program. It ended up being more
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segregated because people just went to what they naturally were inclined to go toward.
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Right. It doesn't have anything to do with income. Women generally flock more towards different
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careers than men. I think of education, for example, look at your school, look at your,
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your son or daughter's school and tell me how many of those teachers are women compared to men.
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It's pretty obvious that women flock towards certain professions and men flock towards others.
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It's just the way it is. It has very little to do with income in my mind.
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It starts when we play, we play differently as kids. We play different sports. We actively. So
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of course, it's going to show up later in life by choosing different professions.
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And you know, what's interesting is you don't have to train that. You know, I've got three
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boys. I've got one little girl. I didn't teach my daughter that she needs to go outside and bake
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mud pies and bring them into me and, and, and let me eat those things. And I didn't teach my sons to
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go out and burn ants with a magnifying glass. That's just what they do. It's just natural.
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They have different curiosities and different things that are interested in and different ways
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of learning and developing as well. A hundred percent. And testosterone has a lot to do with
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that. So I'm learning more and more. Yeah. And I really liked the book because you take a couple
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of different angles on this. The one angle is that a lot of this can be produced naturally by doing
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some things even outside of the diet. Like this isn't just a diet book. This is a lifestyle book.
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And that's what I appreciated about it. The things that might move the needle in your life
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the most might not be diet. If you're on a fad diet, as you've read in the book, it's not a
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restrictive diet. You've got your carbs, your proteins, your fats, and you kind of eat a balanced
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diet. And for good reason, but the things that might move the needle, the most might be a higher
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quality of sleep or, uh, getting rid of some chemical estrogens in your house.
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I want to talk about that because we've had other guests talk about that. And I think that's
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really, really important because there are a lot of those, I don't know if testosterone blockers is
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the right word. That sounds familiar. Maybe you use that term or I've seen it before, but yeah,
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I agree. What's really fascinating is I'll hear from a lot of guys who want to jump towards
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certain therapies and injections and whatnot. And my thought is, why don't you cover the basics first?
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Why don't you try to do this naturally first? And then if you still have testosterone issues,
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okay, well, well, let's look at some medical procedures that might help with that. But
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I think more often than not taking this natural route is probably going to produce
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natural and healthy testosterone levels in men.
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A hundred percent. And the injection therapy route, I looked at some stats when I was doing
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some work earlier today. And I think it's a, it was a $4 billion industry in 2012. And now it's a
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$7 billion industry in 2017. And they're finding a lot of doctors are prescribing that stuff without
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getting their patients tested. It's a growing industry. And I don't think a lot of authority
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figures know how to really come at testosterone from a natural way. And there's so much you can do
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in your life to increase your testosterone levels naturally. There's so much.
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We're going to get into that, but you know, it's, it is interesting because anytime you get
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industries and pharmaceutical, especially in the medical industry, you get these glaring
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conflicts of interest. And so it's no wonder that more and more people are being prescribed or treated
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with these types of therapies. And not only that, it's, it's easier, right? Like it's easier to go get
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a shot or an injection. And I'm not quite sure how that works than it is to get up an hour earlier
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and go into the gym and eat the foods that, you know, you should be eating. That's not
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easy or it's not as easy as just going to get a quick shot. Exactly. And so I think it's a
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convenience issue as well. Exactly. It's a bandaid solution. And those seem to work well for the
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medical industry, not to be cynical or anything like there's great doctors out there, but that
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stat kind of woke me up a little, well, not woke me up, but reaffirmed some of what I thought
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beforehand. I want to go back to this diet thing because that is one of the questions I get a lot is
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what's your diet. What diet are you on? I don't even like the term because frankly, it's, it's not
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some sort of diet. I just tell people I try to eat clean and they ask me, what does that mean?
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I'm like, come on. I mean, everybody knows what that means, right? You eat vegetables, you eat meat
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and that's, and drink a lot of water. Like, I don't think that's confusing for anybody. It seems weird
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that people have questions about what eating clean means. Everyone's got their hook. I've been in the
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fitness industry for a bit. And when you're creating a product for people, you want a hook.
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The hook isn't necessarily like the name or whatever. Sometimes it's a, it's a little
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ingredient that is a magical ingredient or an enemy that you create. Like the carb is the enemy or the
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fat is the enemy or whatever. So there's so much restriction out there that I can understand why
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people get, when you start looking at it, people get a little, I don't know, too much information.
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You know what I mean? And it's all conflicting. So eating clean isn't as simple as it used to be
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30, 40 years ago. That's true. Well, and not only is it not as simple because it's, it's
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convoluted with all the messaging, it's infinitely easier to run into the gas station or Burger King
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and grab a juiced up burger rather than raise a cow, butcher a cow, or even just do a little bit
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of shopping at some organic food store. That's certainly a challenge as well. The outside of the
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grocery store is where the vegetables meet and all that stuff is. The inner aisles are where the
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pre-packaged, pre-made stuff is. People are on those inner aisles because you just take a package
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out, put it in the microwave, but the long-term destruction just isn't worth it.
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And I've heard along with what you had just said is that if you can't identify your food in nature,
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it's probably something you shouldn't consume. For example, if you're eating a steak, it's readily
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available and obvious that that is muscle tissue from an animal. Like you can identify that,
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but as good as they are, you can't really identify in nature, a cake batter Oreo cookie as good as
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they are. So I think it's, it's pretty easy when you try to determine if you can see that food in
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nature or not. If you can literally kill the thing, be it a plant or an animal, then odds are it's going
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to be good for you. Where testosterone is concerned, it's not a hundred percent true. There are things
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that are naturally occurring in nature that aren't great for testosterone levels, but they're few and
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Like what, what would, what would be one of those items or a handful of those items?
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Well, soy, obviously soy and flax are the two most estrogenic things you can, you can have, but they're
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naturally occurring. They're pitched as health foods, but they're not good for testosterone levels.
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And then polyunsaturated fats. So things like most nuts and fish oils and stuff aren't great for
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testosterone levels. The saturated and monounsaturated fats are great for testosterone levels. So animals
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like you're eating animals and, uh, different kinds of nuts and olive oils and coconut oils and
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Do those other foods, do they block testosterone or do they limit production of testosterone? Like
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what is actually happening in the body? And you hear the term like soy boy and things like that.
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And I've never seen the studies. I'm sure they're out there. I hope they're out there.
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What is actually happening in the body when you're consuming those types of foods?
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I've seen two different outlooks. The first is a more common outlook on it. That is that they're
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estrogenic and therefore they increase estrogen in men. There's studies to back that up, but the
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opposite argument is that they're estrogenic. So they help you flush xenoestrogens or chemical
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estrogens. It seems like the first one is the correct way to look at it, where they're very high in
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estrogen and they increase estrogen in both men and women.
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So the ratio of those foods then is it's producing or enabling the production of an
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unbalanced level of estrogen versus testosterone.
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Exactly. Yeah. So like when you look at how to eat the man diet, when you look at how to
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quote unquote, eat like a man to increase your testosterone levels, there's not going to be a
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ton of stuff that you're just going to say no to that's naturally occurring. There's a few,
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so they're easy to remember. But other than that, you're basically eating animals and potatoes and
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things like that. Why is this such a challenge for people? Is it obviously we talked about
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convenience price sometimes comes into play. I really haven't found that to be true, but I know
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that's an argument that people say is that it's more expensive to eat healthier. I think it's probably
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just a convenience issue. Is there something outside of that? I can't imagine that it's a knowledge
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issue. I think a lot of people, most men would probably understand.
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I do think knowledge stands in the way, not because of a lack of information out there,
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A hundred percent. Like I'd never really thought like this until my girlfriend started looking to
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how to eat better. And she didn't ask me for help until like months into it. But then she's like
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so confused by everything. I'm like, Oh my goodness. I didn't even, I kind of put the blockers on.
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I'm not going to look at a diet that's only got fat or a diet that's only got carbs or whatever.
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There's value in each of the macronutrients, right? So, but she's going out there and each
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one promises to be that be all end all. The logical way to eat is more likely the way to eat. Like
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you need your good carbs, you need your good proteins, you need your good fats. But then when
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you start looking into things and you read all these articles, it can be paralysis by analysis for
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sure. Well, that's what I like about your messaging is that it doesn't really come across
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to me as a sales pitch. And I try to be that way as well. It's like, here's what you do. How do you
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exercise? You pick up heavy things. You do deadlifts and bench press and squats. Like the things everybody
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knows what to do. I don't have some program I'm selling you just lift heavy objects. And then when
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it comes to food, it's eat right. Here's, here's some portions. Here's how often here's the types of
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foods, no program to sell you. Just here's what you do. And that's how this book comes across.
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So I do appreciate that of you. Awesome. That's great to hear.
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Let me shift gears here a little bit, because one of the things that you talk about in the book that
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I think it's really important to cover, and this is a long, I guess this is along the lines of what
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we're talking about now is when you talk about paralysis by analysis, there's a lot of misinformation
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out there as well too. And one of the things that you do in the book is you go through
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some of the myths that people commonly subscribe to. Like one, for example, is that you should eat
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every few hours. And you've said, no, that's actually a myth. You shouldn't do that. Can you
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explain what you mean there? And then some of the other myths as well. I remember when I first got
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into training, I was boxing and I wanted to really learn how to be healthy and all this stuff. And they
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said six meals a day. But the problem with six meals a day is that when you spread your meals out,
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you end up eating more food overall. So you're not, you want to be around a caloric maintenance
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if you're just trying to maintain weight. And most people are trying to lose fat when they start
00:19:02.520
looking into their diet. So by spreading your meals out, you're going to eat more calories.
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The second thing that happens is that when you eat, your cortisol levels rise because you're trying
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to produce all this food and all this stuff. You're just prolonging this increased cortisol that
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happens throughout the day. So you don't need six meals. You get the same benefits from fewer meals.
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I eat two usually plus a shake. So I just keep it really simple. And they're big meals. I can enjoy
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them without really having to care about how many calories. And I think one of the things that's
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really helped me because I've incorporated this way of looking at it in this diet prior to even the
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book, but then I've incorporated some new things into my life and the way that I eat. Distraction has
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been really helpful for me because if I'm bored and I'm sitting around and I'm not doing anything,
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I'm going to eat, I'm going to put something in my face. And so for me, in order to avoid eating all
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the time or getting into intermittent fasting, which we can talk about as well, it's really just
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been a matter of staying a little bit busier and distracting myself from wanting to sit there and
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eat. Yeah. Snacks like that's the enemy of most people. Like you go to the grocery store and people
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go to the grocery store hungry and they go pick up snacks or they go pick up things that they could
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just pop in the microwave. So something that I did that has really helped is I don't have any snacks in my
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house and I don't have a microwave. I'm not trying to lose fat or, you know, change how I eat. I've
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just noticed that the ease of heating up food kind of gets you to just eat when you shouldn't eat. And
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sometimes your energy levels go down a bit after you eat and you want to maintain high energy throughout
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the day. So I got rid of my microwave, which has helped me a lot. That's a good point. I know when my
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wife is out of town for any amount of time, it seems like I eat even a little bit better because
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I don't do the shopping in our house. And so all like the snacks and all that stuff is gone. So if
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I want to eat, I actually have to prepare a meal, which frankly, I just, I don't enjoy cooking and I
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don't enjoy preparing meals. So I just eat less because I'm not snacking all day long every day.
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Yeah. I think that's a big roadblock for people is the snacking. Like you get someone to start eating
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the right amount and they won't track their snacks because they don't even think of it as eating.
00:21:14.300
It's the same thing with finances. I mean, you look at somebody and you ask them to budget and
00:21:18.100
they don't calculate the drink that they go get in the morning because it's only $2. Except for if
00:21:22.840
you add that two or $5 up every single day over the course of 30 days, you may be a hundred,
00:21:27.720
200, $300 that you're spending on nonsense stuff. You don't even know is slipping out through your
00:21:32.340
pocket. Exactly. Yeah. One of the things that you talk about is the idea. And we addressed this a
00:21:38.760
second ago when we talked about intermittent fasting is that breakfast is the most important
00:21:43.600
meal of the day, but you say it's not. Yeah. So it depends. I like, I like intermittent fasting.
00:21:49.080
It sounds like you've started doing it as well. Yeah. I don't eat at seven after seven o'clock at night.
00:21:54.400
And then I start eating, uh, well, lunch, I have lunch around 11, 1130. How's your energy?
00:21:59.980
It was low when I started. Um, and I don't know if that's the body adjusting or, or trying to figure
00:22:05.660
out what the heck I'm doing with my food, but I actually feel pretty good right now. I do drink
00:22:11.920
a lot of water in the morning and sometimes I'll either have like a pre-workout or, or a protein
00:22:17.840
shake after, but that's all before I have lunch. I've been doing it for a while now. And when I first
00:22:22.360
started first, I always suggest to like ease into it, not just go gangbusters with it. You'll end up
00:22:29.060
craving something and eating it. You know what I mean? But I've been doing it for a while and I've
00:22:33.020
noticed my energy levels are just so much better because of the less frequent eating. And then I
00:22:39.220
load that first meal up with fats and meat. So I'm not getting that spike in insulin that you get
00:22:46.260
from carbs in the morning and then that crash. So by skipping breakfast and using the fasting just
00:22:53.020
from a time issue, I find it a lot better. You don't need the calories in the morning. It doesn't do
00:22:57.980
anything beneficial. It's not like you're fueling yourself for the day. And then for me, the most
00:23:03.440
important meal ends up being the last meal of the day, just getting good carbs in and getting me
00:23:07.520
sleepy right before bed. I think there's also a common thought, whether it's true and valid or not
00:23:14.000
is subject to interpretation that you shouldn't eat a big meal. What's your take on that?
00:23:19.900
From the studies they've done, from how your body works, there's no real basis for that. The theory is
00:23:26.100
that you're not going to burn the calories you're putting in your body, right? You've been moving
00:23:32.280
throughout the day. Your body needs it. Your body's still burning calories at night. By having carbs at
00:23:36.740
night, which is when I have meat and potatoes a lot, just sweet potatoes, yams, meat, like normal
00:23:42.980
white potatoes. I mix it up, but those carbs at the end of night or the end of the day, not, I don't
00:23:48.680
have it at night. I'm same with you. I end my day by eating at six, six 30 kind of thing. It kind of
00:23:53.740
gets you sleepy and ready for a good sleep, which is insanely important for health, testosterone and
00:23:58.220
all that stuff. It's more about your overall calories in a day. Forget about the meal at
00:24:03.080
night. Forget about, there's some people who eat a massive meal for dinner, one meal a day.
00:24:08.380
It's more about your overall caloric intake in a day rather than the timing of your calories or when
00:24:14.420
you eat most of your calories. Yeah. I think there's a misunderstanding or confusion about the
00:24:19.700
way that your metabolism works in that even sitting here having this conversation, the body is burning
00:24:25.560
fuel and using fuel to create the energy that we need even just to have this very sedentary
00:24:31.120
conversation that we're having right now. Exactly. And when you talk about diet, the main reason why
00:24:35.780
we're eating, why most of us should be eating is for energy. You want to eat in a way that gives you
00:24:41.020
maximal energy levels so that you can have high energy throughout the day and get all the awesome
00:24:46.280
stuff you want to get done during the day. So if these big meals, if you think breakfast should
00:24:51.320
be this big meal, if you've ever had a big breakfast, lots of toast and oatmeal and all that
00:24:56.560
stuff, you know, you crash a few hours later. Or even at lunch, if I have a big burger and just stuff
00:25:03.300
my face, like I get back into the office and I'm worthless for that time after lunch. So I try to
00:25:08.640
take it easy at lunch because I want to be productive after lunch. I don't want to go into this catatonic
00:25:13.940
state. Exactly. Like I remember being in college and early in the workforce and man, I'd have a
00:25:20.320
massive lunch and then I'd have to like sneak away from work and go sleep in my car. By restructuring
00:25:26.640
my diet, the way I do it is the fats and meat, which slows the rise of blood sugar. So that gives
00:25:31.400
you a elevated energy levels throughout the day. And then having like a shake with like some assorted
00:25:36.980
berries, some high quality whey protein or something after my workout. And then the dinner,
00:25:42.380
which is eating an animal and then potatoes. So I get those carbs in me. And that's a bit of a
00:25:46.840
bigger meal. My dinner is the biggest meal because that tires me out. I want to get ready for bed.
00:25:52.900
Man, I just want to take a quick break. This has been such a powerful conversation up to this point.
00:25:57.660
I've incorporated a lot of what Chad has talked about in my life. And I can tell that it's making
00:26:02.420
a huge difference in the way that I show up and in the way that I perform. But one of my biggest
00:26:07.460
struggles when incorporating new ideas like this and habits into my life was creating the framework
00:26:14.040
and the foundation, and even having some accountability to make these new habits and the
00:26:18.180
new principles and the things I'm adopting into my life actually stick. And that's the reason that I
00:26:23.780
created the iron council is to help give guys like you and me, the tools, the guidance, the direction
00:26:30.400
to make powerful. And most importantly, to make lasting changes in our lives. When you band with us
00:26:36.380
inside of the iron council, you'll be tapping into a powerful network of over 400 men working
00:26:42.820
hard to improve their lives, every facet of their lives. And then of course, helping you and the rest
00:26:47.720
of the brothers inside the council do the same. If you need a kickstart and you need, or want some
00:26:52.920
men who care about your success, I invite you to band with us inside of the iron council. You can learn
00:26:58.660
more about the benefits and the features and everything that we're doing there and why this has been
00:27:02.360
so powerful for hundreds and hundreds of men. And of course, lock in your spot as well. Do that
00:27:08.200
at order of man.com slash iron council. Again, that's order of man.com slash iron council. In the
00:27:14.480
meantime, guys, let's get back to this conversation with Chad. Well, you bring up an interesting point
00:27:19.920
about our sugar and insulin levels. And I think what's happening is that we are becoming accustomed to
00:27:27.600
not listening to our bodies. And what I mean by that, for example, is we think we have all this
00:27:32.080
energy and that's probably because you had a coffee or a diet Coke or a energy drink in the morning.
00:27:37.260
And then you get a little tired and you're like, Oh man, I don't have any energy. Let me, let me go get
00:27:40.280
another five hour energy drink. Yeah. And so you just consume these sugars that are destroying and
00:27:46.600
killing you. Yeah. They're horrible. Instead of listening to your body and naturally keeping those
00:27:52.280
levels where they need to be. So you do have the energy. We just mask what our body's telling us
00:27:57.460
with a quick five hour energy. For example, our bodies are meant to be lean and they're meant to
00:28:02.220
be energetic. We're not meant to be fat and we're not meant to be tired all the time. So then what are
00:28:08.100
the roadblocks in your life? For some people, it's going to be, you're going to react different to
00:28:12.180
carbohydrates and you might react different to other foods. But I think for the most part, having these
00:28:17.780
massive meals, these sugars, these, these artificial foods are going to making our bodies inefficient
00:28:24.120
and tired. So you just gotta, you gotta really listen to your body and see what works best for
00:28:28.080
you. But the way I've structured it for me, I know it took me a while to kind of figure that out
00:28:32.300
because there's a lot of conflicting information out there, but I like the way I structure it. And
00:28:36.980
it really like, I'm not a guy who's, first of all, I used to be an insomniac. I used to have a horrible
00:28:42.680
time sleeping and then I would just not have a lot of energy. So fixing the sleep and then
00:28:46.900
fixing the diet was big for me. Did you fix the sleep in a different way outside of the diet or
00:28:51.600
was it the diet that actually helped the sleep? Carbs at night helped a lot. The diet helped a
00:28:56.520
lot. I think I fixed the testosterone through training and through diet a lot and different
00:29:01.800
things that are in the book. But then fixing the sleep was also huge. They both kind of worked
00:29:06.860
symbiotically. Like they both helped each other, but fixing the sleep was a big one. I started eating
00:29:11.680
carbs at night and then I stuck to a sleep schedule religiously. And that made a huge
00:29:16.780
difference. Even just losing 20 pounds will make a huge difference. Like I know for me,
00:29:22.280
so I lost 50 pounds and think about this for a second. Anybody who's listening, I want you to go
00:29:28.740
to bed and lie down on your bed and then take a 45 pound plate and put it on your chest and tell me
00:29:35.120
if it's harder to breathe or not. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, that's literally what you're
00:29:39.540
doing. You're putting so much pressure on your windpipe and your lungs. I had the beginning stages of
00:29:45.480
sleep apnea. I had restless leg syndrome and I didn't do anything other than lose weight. Not
00:29:50.940
to say that's easy, but I lost weight. That was the only thing I changed and my sleep dramatically
00:29:56.980
improved. I was able to breathe. I don't snore anymore, significantly more energy when I wake up
00:30:03.100
because I'm not fighting for oxygen and kicking my legs every hour of the night that I'm asleep.
00:30:08.300
There's so many benefits that come from eating correctly.
00:30:13.940
Losing weight, we're not supposed to be fat. That's not how our bodies work. Everything goes
00:30:19.800
to shite as soon as we start gaining too much body fat. Even estrogen stores itself in body fat. If
00:30:25.840
you're over 12%, 13%, 14% body fat, you're carrying estrogen in that body fat. Anytime I talk to a guy
00:30:32.840
who says he wants to increase testosterone, I ask what their body fat percentage is. I ask what
00:30:38.580
their body fat percentage is and then how much are they sleeping at night? Those two things. Those are
00:30:43.220
the two main roadblocks. Then you can get into getting rid of the chemical estrogens and all that
00:30:49.060
stuff and a couple supplements help here and there. Those two first questions. If you're overweight,
00:30:54.740
that is the most important thing you could possibly do for a lot of different things, but for
00:30:59.440
testosterone for sleep quality and all that stuff as well.
00:31:04.340
You also talked about less worrying, which increases cortisol levels. Does cortisol block
00:31:10.380
testosterone or limit production? What does cortisol do in the body?
00:31:13.840
It counters testosterone like estrogen does. If your estrogen levels are high, your testosterone
00:31:18.660
levels are going to be low. Same with cortisol. There's tests. Depending on how you get your test done,
00:31:22.760
they can test testosterone in relation to cortisol. They literally are not like yin and yang,
00:31:29.120
but they oppose each other. You want to have your cortisol levels as low as possible.
00:31:34.540
Cortisol is a stress hormone. Sleep is a really big one for cortisol. If you're not getting eight
00:31:39.700
hours of sleep or nine hours of sleep, every hour less you get, it's 15% less testosterone that you're
00:31:45.620
going to have. If you're getting four hours of sleep versus eight hours of sleep, you're essentially
00:31:49.920
doubling your testosterone levels by getting eight hours. You can go from high testosterone to low
00:31:54.280
testosterone by just not getting enough sleep. That's crazy how big of a difference that level
00:32:00.200
of sleep makes. What's really interesting is guys will say, well, I'll sleep when I'm dead. I don't
00:32:05.920
need any sleep. Yet, you do. You need a lot of sleep in order to produce more effectively as a man
00:32:11.600
during your waking hours. Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech where he talks about sleep six hours a night
00:32:15.820
or something. I'm like, hell yeah, I'm going to sleep five. I did that. My work quality just
00:32:20.520
stunk. Relationships with people, grumpy, name it. The quality of life just stunk. You get into
00:32:28.140
sleeping better and then you just adopt some good habits as far as work and you just produce so much
00:32:33.940
more at such a higher quality. One of the things that you talked a lot about, and I was glad to see
00:32:38.980
you cover this because I don't think this is talked about a whole lot. It's the idea of increasing
00:32:43.540
testosterone levels naturally through competition. I think there's so much to be said for that.
00:32:49.720
What's sad is that we as men are encouraged to shy away from being competitive and being aggressive
00:32:56.320
and being dominant. I think it's really impacting us. I think there's something to be said for finding
00:33:02.000
other men who you can compete against, whether that's physically, intellectually, and you can compete
00:33:09.160
and more importantly, win. The objective is to win. You're going to feel better. And the reason
00:33:14.840
you're going to feel better as a man to win is because these chemicals that are helping you are
00:33:18.480
then coursing through your body. It increases those chemicals. Exactly. The act of competition
00:33:23.120
increases testosterone. It's like crazy because you can watch your favorite sports team win or compete
00:33:29.780
and your testosterone levels will increase. Well, I know that's true. When I watch on a Saturday night,
00:33:34.980
I'll watch the fights UFC with my boys. And I know, I know exactly what's happening. And my body is
00:33:41.740
being triggered to be a man to fight and to be aggressive and dominant and physical. Well, that's
00:33:47.620
the testosterone. The point I like to make, you look at testosterone, you look at guys that want to
00:33:52.300
increase it. And it's, it's like, okay, why do you want to increase it? A lot of the times they want to
00:33:57.580
be, they want to be more manly. They want to be more masculine. They want to be more competitive and
00:34:02.100
more successful. Well, part of it, you let the actions lead the hormone. You know what I mean?
00:34:07.220
So you start competing more. You don't wait for the testosterone to come to making more competitive
00:34:11.280
or aggressive or whatever. You start, you start doing those things. You start taking risks. You
00:34:16.280
start winning. There's, there's some incredible studies about testosterone surges when guys make
00:34:21.780
a lot of money or something like that. When you see the fruition of your hard work kind of thing.
00:34:26.180
Right. So you come at it from the lifestyle, the diet, the getting rid of chemicals, the sleep,
00:34:32.860
all that stuff. But then you also start living the life of this high testosterone masculine self.
00:34:39.500
And it's just triggered by a choice, by a few changes in habits. I saw you started doing jujitsu.
00:34:45.640
Join a jujitsu gym, join a boxing gym, do things like that. And they'll have a positive impact for sure.
00:34:51.080
And I've always been physical. I was very athletic in high school and participated in three or
00:34:56.020
four different sports in any given year. But then I, I got away from that, you know,
00:35:00.440
because I had the family and the kids and the job and the, this and the, that, and then I got away
00:35:05.080
from it. And I started jujitsu as of this recording, probably it was a month ago. So it was about four
00:35:11.320
weeks ago. And I remember that first class I went to, I felt awkward and out of place. Of course,
00:35:15.140
that's just how it is. But I remember getting done with that and being completely exhausted,
00:35:20.060
a little embarrassed or feeling foolish. Cause I got, cause I got destroyed. But I also remember
00:35:25.440
feeling this overwhelming sense of encouragement and pride. And I just felt good for being there
00:35:33.340
and being physical and fighting another man. There's something about it.
00:35:40.440
Well, and forget the science. Like, how do you feel? You know, I talk with a lot of guys every
00:35:44.820
day who are like, Oh, I just feel sluggish or I don't know how to talk to women or I feel like a
00:35:49.240
loser. I don't have any confidence. And to me, I hear that because I know, and I've gone through and
00:35:54.420
done some of the research here. And I know you have as well as that definitely could be
00:35:58.040
testosterone levels. Yeah, no, for sure. There's a lot you can do to turn that around. A lot of guys
00:36:03.180
feel like it's there. It's just who they are or their, their plight in life, you know? Um,
00:36:09.360
like a lot of guys, school system, whatever been trained to act and maybe even feel guilty that
00:36:15.600
they're, they have these desires to be aggressive and conquer and, and, uh, win and all that stuff.
00:36:21.580
There's a lot they can do to bring that back and take control of their life. And testosterone is
00:36:26.020
obviously a part of it and competition and living a certain way as a part of it.
00:36:30.340
That's one of the hard things. And I'm sure you get the messages just as I do. And those messages
00:36:35.260
are, Oh, you, you know, you're making it too easy or you're trying to be too hard to be a man and that
00:36:39.760
kind of stuff. And it's from people who don't understand what masculinity and manliness is.
00:36:43.840
And so guys who are trying to step into this role are being mocked and ridiculed and quote unquote,
00:36:50.560
toxic masculinity. And it's absolutely absurd. That stuff enrages me. The best a man can be is,
00:36:56.340
well, the Roman definition, excellence in all things. Part of that, that excellence is being
00:37:01.520
as good at being a man as you can possibly be. And men are protectors. We're providers,
00:37:06.680
you know, men just like masculine stuff. We like different things. You have to give yourself
00:37:12.680
permissional like that without caring about the idiots that are going to call you a toxic or
00:37:17.100
whatever. Well, one of the other things, and we are bumping up against time, but I did want to make
00:37:21.060
sure I address this because you talked about it in the book. You talk about the importance of sex
00:37:26.320
and you talk about the importance of sex without pornography. Every time I broach the subject,
00:37:33.000
talk about this subject. I mean, guys love their pornography and they refuse to see the negative impacts
00:37:39.400
that pornography has in their life. Talk to me about that.
00:37:43.820
Oh man, what's the, there's a website that's really good at this stuff. They really go into it.
00:37:47.940
Just about the effects of pornography on your literal, like your real sexual health. The goal
00:37:53.580
should be just to have great sex with your lady as often as possible. Like it's really good for you.
00:37:59.500
Feels good. There's nothing wrong with it. But then the porn takes away from that. It can lead to
00:38:04.180
impotence. I think there's one statistic about young men who have impotence and their porn,
00:38:10.720
how much they watch porn and stuff. You got to really decide what do you want? Do you want
00:38:15.120
actual sex or do you want porn? Do you want to watch other people do it? You know,
00:38:20.540
I don't know, but like real sex increases testosterone. The thought of having real sex
00:38:24.860
dramatically increases testosterone. Porn does not have the same effect.
00:38:29.400
I think it comes down to that convenience thing again, right? I mean,
00:38:32.400
it's easy. Yeah. Very easy. It's easy to jump online and watch a video. It's a little bit
00:38:36.860
harder to take your wife on a date and seduce her in a way and earn the right. And I know people are
00:38:45.360
going to hear that and they're not going to like what I'm saying, but this is true. And it's been
00:38:47.640
true since man has been on this planet, earn the right to mate. Exactly. Well said. Even, even
00:38:52.500
young guys trying to find that mate, you got to get yourself together. You can't be a kid anymore.
00:38:59.000
A good woman doesn't want a kid. She doesn't want someone she has to take care of. She wants
00:39:03.660
someone who's got their stuff together, their life together in more than one way, physically,
00:39:08.500
with work, with career, all that stuff. So it takes time and a lot of effort. And then guys see this
00:39:15.060
alternative, which is, it sounds so weird to say it, but watching other people do it, they get the
00:39:20.960
same endorphin release and they think that that's better than having to do all that work. The benefit you
00:39:26.960
gain, Jordan Peterson talked about it, the benefit you gain from rejection of women is invaluable
00:39:32.700
because they tell you how to be and how to act. Not all women will give you the right feedback,
00:39:36.980
but a lot of them will. You just got to be open to it. Right. I mean, over a long period of time
00:39:41.380
and for lack of a better term through experimentation, you will learn what works and what doesn't with
00:39:46.920
women. Yeah. And the good one is a lot of guys when they're young are a little needy or this and
00:39:56.160
that. And they, like a woman, be it for good or for bad, can teach you how to be a leader in ways
00:40:02.740
that you're not going to get because you're not going to open up like you are with your pals or
00:40:08.200
whatever. So, well, you just don't care as much what a guy thinks as you do what a gal thinks.
00:40:13.100
Yeah. You might be a very different person around the two. You might be the guy, the man around your
00:40:18.200
buddies. But then when it comes to a lady, you're a blubbering idiot. It's just natural. Sometimes
00:40:23.280
if it's your first experiences when you're a kid trying to get a date or whatever, and they kind of
00:40:28.680
help you navigate through how to become a leader in uncomfortable situations. And the destruction of
00:40:35.760
porn is like you can come at it from a moral standpoint or a non moral standpoint. You can come
00:40:41.080
at it from either way. It changes how you look at sex, what you expect from sex. It can feed
00:40:46.300
different industries like child trafficking, whatever. Like with porn, you have to consistently
00:40:51.460
upgrade what you see or else you don't get the same satisfaction from it. At some point, it's going
00:40:57.320
to get into some dark stuff, you know. But then from just a quality of life standpoint, you want
00:41:02.980
a good sexual relationship with your wife. That's a good part of a marriage. And porn takes you away
00:41:09.600
from that. Yeah. The website that you had referenced earlier, and I think you actually
00:41:13.420
referenced in this in the book as well, is your brain on porn. Is that the site you're talking
00:41:17.740
about? Yeah. Guys, you got to step back and really see what's what. The easy way is not always the good
00:41:23.640
way. I got to learn this all the time. I think we all have to learn this. The easy way is not always
00:41:27.900
the good way. And often it's not the good way across the board. So you got to do what's good for the
00:41:33.600
greater good in your own life, for your family and all that stuff. Well, Chad, we could talk about
00:41:38.080
this. And I'm sure you and I will have more conversations, seeing as how we have a lot of
00:41:42.180
the same interest and we're in the same space. But for the sake of time, we'll wind things down.
00:41:46.580
I do want to ask you a couple additional questions. The first one we danced around a little bit. And
00:41:50.240
that question is, what does it mean to be a man? I mentioned the Roman view of manliness,
00:41:55.800
excellence in all things. I think a man separates himself from being a boy by being a leader,
00:42:02.040
by being a caretaker, a protector, your three Ps, the protect, provide, preside.
00:42:06.420
And continually being self-reliant where he can and improving. A boy or a male or whatever you want
00:42:14.480
to call it can depend on others where he should be self-sufficient.
00:42:20.420
Yeah. Well said. Well said. Well, how do we connect with you, man? Learn more about the work that you're
00:42:24.420
doing. And of course, pick up a copy of the book as well.
00:42:27.200
Yeah. I'll give you a link for the book. They can pick up the book at themandietbook.com,
00:42:31.160
average2alpha.com. And then on the YouTubes, I think just search Chad House, H-O-W-S-E and some
00:42:38.920
of my stuff will come up. We'll connect it all. So the guys know where to go. Chad,
00:42:42.080
I appreciate you, man. I've been looking forward to this conversation. Like I said,
00:42:45.140
when we started, we've been connected and I think we were bound to meet at some point to
00:42:49.300
have this conversation. And I'm really glad that we did. So thanks for taking some time with us today.
00:42:53.220
Thanks so much for having me on. I really like what you're doing. It's awesome to be on here.
00:42:58.020
Man, there it is. My conversation with Mr. Chad House. I'm sure that you're walking away with
00:43:02.760
some new information about how to incorporate better eating, better nutrition into your life.
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I would encourage you to go pick up a copy of the book. It's a very quick read. It's very practical.
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It's very simple. I think a lot of people will probably overlook it for its simplicity,
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but I can tell you from personal experience, as I've incorporated this way of eating and dieting
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and consuming and all the things that he talks about in this podcast. And of course the book,
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it has been impactful. It has been measurable as far as the improvements that I've seen in my life.
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So go ahead and pick up a copy of the book, connect with Chad on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
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wherever you're on social media. Also connect with me, let Chad know, let me know what you think about
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the show, what you thought about the conversation. And even I would love to hear about some of your
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personal results when you do incorporate this way of eating and this style of nutrition,
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if you will, into your life. So hit me up on Instagram at Ryan Mickler. I'm very,
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very active over there, probably more active on Instagram than I am anywhere else, but you can also
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catch us on Twitter and Facebook at order of man, but on Instagram, it's at Ryan Mickler. My last name
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is spelled M-I-C-H-L-E-R. Guys, I'm going to sign out with that. As always, I am so honored and
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frankly humbled. I'm humbled every single day. I'm inspired every single day when I get messages
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from you, when I see what it is you're doing, when I see you salvaging your marriages and losing weight
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and starting businesses and kindling that romantic relationship and connecting with your kids and
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all of the wonderful things that I see you doing. It's inspiring to be a very, very small part of
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that change in your life. So guys, I can't tell you this enough, but I do really, really appreciate
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you being on this journey. We could not do it without you. So with that said, and until next
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week, take action and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man
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podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.
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We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.