2% With Michael Easter – Details, episodes & analysis

It’s the first Friday of the month. Which means it’s time to Burn the Ships.

On the first Friday of every month, we publish a new Burn the Ships workout for Members only.

Members of the Two Percent community do the workout every weekend—a bunch of us satellites, all sweating and improving together as one extensive network.

This month we’re getting our body in order for the New Year.

We’re laying a foundation for stronger and more resilient performance all year by leveraging fundamental human movement patterns that help you become stronger, faster, and tougher.

And it starts with your core, which is the foundation that all of your limbs work from. It’s like your body’s control center.

If your core is weak, you’ll be more at risk of back and lower body injuries, and your performance will suffer. There’s also a strong link between core strength and longevity.

Become a Member of Two Percent to get full details and video of the workout. TWOPCT.com

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Modern humans have engineered the world for comfort and ease.

Most people rarely step outside of their comfort zones these days—we’re living progressively soft, sterile, temperature-controlled, over-fed, under-challenged, safety-netted lives. And it’s slowly limiting the degree to which we experience our, as the poet Mary Oliver put it, “one wild and precious life.”

But a growing body of evidence shows that people are at their best—physically harder, mentally tougher, and spiritually sounder—after doing hard sh*t. We’re talking about pushing back against our world of ease and comfort and actively seeking occasional hardship.

Michael will unpack the science of why doing hard things is so beneficial. He’ll cover:

* What a month in the Arctic taught him about the value of doing hard things.

* The state of modern comfort and how it presents a conundrum.

* Why you’re wired to do hard things.

Today Michael is speaking with Tamar Haspel one of his favorite, no-BS thinkers about food, nutrition, and health.

Tamar is the author of To Boldly Grow (a hilarious, info-packed book I loved) and a food, nutrition, and health columnist for The Washington Post.

Tamar is also a serial killer of food myths and misconceptions—a sharp thinker who understands the science of what we eat and can put it in context of everyday life.

* Tamar and Michael cover:

* The truth about eggs and why expensive, locally-farmed eggs taste the same as cheap, mass-produced ones.

* Understanding obesity and the food environment

* The realities of being overweight (particularly as a woman)

* Why we know less about nutrition than we think, and how that should guide our food choices. Think: Hedge your bets.

* The truth about organic food—myths about it, it’s costs and benefits.

* Diet soda and whether it’s unhealthy.

* How to navigate the modern food environment.

* Whether exercise is good for weight loss.

* Whether government subsidies around corn and soy led to the rise in obesity.

* Food dyes and the new administration’s push to remove them. Will it matter?

* Is red meat good or bad for you?

* Are plant-based meats a viable alternative to real meat? What are their health effects?

* The benefits of lentils and Tamar’s epic recipe to help you eat more lentils (which, she argues, are a food we should all be eating).

* Ozempic and Tamar’s thoughts on it.

* Tamar’s journey growing her own food, and what she learned from it.

* A few quick words on hunting.

Become a Member at TWOPCT.com

*Member Episode* We're diving into the complicated world of exercise and weight loss. New science suggests exercise doesn't help you lose weight. It turns out that isn't true—so long as you use the right tactics.

You'll learn five new ways to think about exercise and use it to lose fat. These laws can help you make smarter decisions and save you time and effort—all while improving your health.

To listen to the full episode, go to TWOPCT.com and become a Member of 2%.

Michael explores the truth about a controversial new idea in fitness, called the "Constrained Energy Hypothesis." It states that we don't actually burn more calories a day when we exercise. But it has some pushback.

• This episode will help clear some recent confusion over whether exercise helps us burn more calories across a day.
• More research shows that exercise does indeed help you burn more calories, but you won't burn as many as you think.
• And if you want to lose weight through exercise, you'll have to do a lot of it.
• You'll learn just how many calories exercise really burns and how much you'll have to exercise to find an effect.

Thanks for listening. Become a Member at TWOPCT.com.

*Member Episode* Michael covers this month's Burn the Ships workout. We drop a Burn the Ships workout on the first Friday of every month and all do it once a week for the entire month. You'll learn what the workout is and the physical and mental benefits of doing one tough workout a week.

Our workout this month is called "Don't Die." It builds the two skills you need to live and perform well now—and in a s**t-is-hitting-the-fan scenario.

To get full access to the workout, become a Member of 2% at TWOPCT.com.

*Member episode* The topic of caffeine, like all topics in the health world, is rife with all sorts of good and bad information. Today, Michael covers a new, sweeping review that investigated the most common claims around caffeine.

Michael will highlight nine of them that matter most. We'll cover:

• Whether coffee dehydrates you.
• If pregnant women should avoid caffeine.
• If you should wait 90 to 120 minutes to ingest caffeine after waking up to avoid an afternoon crash.
• Whether drinking coffee regularly lessens its effects on fitness performance.
• Whether caffeine burns fat and how much it takes.
• If caffeine can cause depression and anxiety.
• Whether caffeine can kill you.
• If there are people for who caffeine doesn't work (non-responders)
• If caffeine improves fitness, and what dose it takes.

To access the full episode, become a Member of 2% at TWOPCT.com.

Michael dives into the topic of what happens when you drink too much caffeine. We'll talk about:

• What happens when you quit caffeine.
• Why quitting caffeine could lead to weight loss, better sleep, more energy, and less anxiety and stress.
• The amount of caffeine the Mayo Clinic says can lead to problems. 
• How much caffeine the average American takes in and how much caffeine is in common drinks like coffee.
• How to find out if you're overdoing caffeine. 
• The two best methods to detox from caffeine. 

Become a Member at TWOPCT.com 

*Member episode* In today's AMA, Michael explains his complicated and evolving thoughts on ice baths. You'll learn:

• A quick history of cold exposure for improving health, injury, and exercise recovery.
• Why I think ice baths/cold exposure is popular now (hint: it has little to do with health or recovery).
• What the research says about ice baths and exercise.
• What research says about ice baths and fat loss.
• What the research says about ice baths and physical and mental health.
• Why and how I changed my mind about ice baths.
• How I personally use cold exposure.
• Final thoughts on whether ice baths are a temporary trend or permanent fixture of the health world.

For full access to this podcast and to access all the great content on TWOPCT.com, please become a Member. Go to TWOPCT.com.

*Member Episode* Michael explains what he thinks about saunas and heat exposure. 

The research around heat exposure therapy is interesting ...but using a sauna can feel like one more thing on a laundry list of health practices we should all be "doing."

This episode explores how Michael thinks about heat exposure from an evolutionary perspective, his thoughts on saunas, and how he uses heat exposure in his life.

You'll walk away with a practical and powerful perspective on leveraging the power of the heat.

To access the full episode, become a Member of 2% at TWOPCT.com, the internet's best site for practical and powerful health information.