Q&A with Tim — Current Morning and Exercise Routines, Holotropic Breathwork, Ambition vs. Self-Compassion, Daily Practices for Joy, Ontological Shock, and More (#518)

I was overly joyful to hear you finally feeling in the position to take fatherhood into consideration!

Since I am currently embarking upon this journey myself, it will be very interesting for me personally to hear you share one or another inside regarding that topic along the way.
You seem very chill about it, but maybe here and there you might have interesting experts on child-rearing on, which would be very cool.

In preparation for it, the “Better Baby Book” by Dave Asprey and his wife, might be interesting for you, because it covers the basics for optimal biological preconditions very nicely. He might be a controversial figure, but this first book of his is very well researched and science-backed, which his wife as a co-author in her role as a doctor took care of very well too.

FYI: the “recon” in to reconcile is pronounced like “reckon” in reckoning.

This was great! I just finished reading Tools of Titans so it was fun to hear which things from the book you are still doing/using etc. and what new strategies you’ve been trying.

I wish I had known about this earlier so I could’ve submitted a question – I’ve always been curious how you got through the period where you had lyme disease and were functioning at like 10% capacity. I don’t have lyme but have struggled with chronic fatigue and hormonal disfunctions for many years now and while it’s much better than it was, I still have days where I am exhausted and foggy and can’t get anything done. And then I feel guilty that I’m not doing anything productive even though I feel crappy and can’t focus!

If you have any words of wisdom or strategies that helped you get through all of that I’d love to hear what kept you going on the bad days!

Hey there, long time listener here. Cool to hear that you’re starting to explore climbing! That’s been my sport for the last 15 years or so, and it’s a great lifelong sport. I love to travel to climb, because not only do you get off the beaten path a bit, but you meet so many cool people out at the crag or boulders. Where are you climbing in Austin? I worked there for a few months and climbed at the Austin Boulder Project while I was there. It’s one of my very favorite climbing gyms, and I’ve been to quite a few! Check them out if you haven’t already.

Anyway, I listened to The Curious Climber Podcast’s interview with Dave MacLeod the other day, and while I loved their episode, I would really enjoy hearing you interview him as well! He’s an all around climber and a bit of an underdog, but climbs at the elite level in pretty much every discipline. He’s also student of physiology, exercise science and human nutrition, so he’s got a pretty scientific approach to training and climbing. Seems like you two would have quite a bit to talk about.

Love the show, keep up the good work.
Beth

Great episode as usual, I keep getting great pointers and ideas from your podcast (my books-to-read list is becoming endless, thank you!)

I wanted to leave a comment about one of the points you mention in this episode: you and your girlfriend going through fertility checks in the hopes of starting a family. First of all, I wish you guys the best of luck 🙂

I know this is an enormously private thing which of course you will do on your own timing and choose if and when to disclose. However dare I suggest that you be open about your journey, as it is a topic that is still, in this day and age, a complete taboo. Fertility is, I’ve discovered through my own experience, something that everyone takes for granted, until it is not. I sincerely hope your girlfriend and you find everything easy and quick in this sense, however it would be fantastic if you could share and raise awareness for other people to think about understanding their fertility journey and be able to make informed choices – ignoring fertility and postponing it endlessly because we simply assume things will go smoothly is something more and more people struggle with. As one friend of mine says, everybody is counting calories when we should be counting antral follicles.

After years of dealing with what has been diagnosed as “unexplained infertility”, I have chosen to be extremely vocal and advocate for everybody to know more about where they are on their fertility journey. I am now luckily the proud mom of a 3 years old, but this has been after learning the hard way that I should have known better my body and my options, and becoming just short of an expert in endocrinology and reproductive immunology (I’m in reality a computer engineer). The reason I’m suggesting this is that you have the megaphone I wish I had (if I had that giant billboard, I’d put up there “Do fertility testing now, decide later”).

Hey Tim, I was surprised to hear that both climbing (gym climbing it sounds like?) and learning about the natural world have become such a large part of your life. I’ve been climbing for 50 years now, but it wasn’t until my mid-forties that I got excited about learning more about the plants and animals around me. I would encourage you to keep learning more – it genuinely does make time in nature richer.

Also, have you ever considered interviewing speed climbing legend Hans Florine. He first set the record in the Nose on El Capitan when he was in his mid-twenties(??) and last set the record when he was in his late forties with a partner (Alex Honnold) young enough to be his son. He has been an obsessive optimizer all his life, which makes me think he might be a good fit for your show.

Hey Tim! Love this episode, and I’m a huge fan.

I know you used to drink tumeric every morning in your tea-based drink. I wanted to ask if you still do? I’m well versed in the benefits of tumeric (anti-inflammatory etc.) but I’ve been seeing conflicting scientific literature about tumeric’s potential negative affect on testosterone, as it is an AR inhibitor.

I love tumeric’s benefits, but for me it wouldn’t be worth taking if it reduced testosterone. Do you know anything about this specific issue?

Very big fan, you’ve had a huge impact on my lifestyle. Thanks Tim.

Tim – you’ve talked a lot about your practice of walking meetings. Have you found a Bluetooth headset that does a particularly good job of limiting the ambient noise others hear? (i.e., your mic filtering out ambient noise for the other parties) Thanks!

Thanks for all you do. I’m a long-term fan, and always enjoy your Q&A sessions.

I’m wondering if you and your partner considered adoption prior to pursuing fertility options. You’ve said many times that deciding to bring a child into the world is ultimately a selfish act. I couldn’t agree more, particularly now that we’re well into the throes of climate change on an overpopulated planet.

Individuals with limited resources usually have fewer options, so I understand why they might choose to bear their own children instead of adopting. But I always feel disappointed when individuals with access to ample resources (financial, medical, legal, etc.) choose to have biological children rather than adopt. It breaks my heart that there are countless children born in desperate need of care, while individuals who are in a position to help choose to focus on fertility treatments instead.

I wish we lived in a world with unlimited resources where parents could make any reproductive choice without worrying about the affect on others. But the difficult reality is that earth’s resources are finite. Overpopulation is contributing to every environmental catastrophe on the planet. Every little choice we make affects everybody else by a tiny increment.

I would love to see more individuals with a wide sphere of influence (such as yourself) choose to be role models for adoption rather than bringing more humans into an already overburdened world. I can think of no act more powerful than adopting a child born with few options in life, while giving Mother Earth a much-needed reprieve at the same time.

Good luck on your journey as a parent, whichever path you ultimately choose.