Cut The Crap - Transform Your Focus And Energy

00:00 Your lifestyle choices are either fueling your life or holding you back. So what's it going to be? It's time to cut the crap. Roll theme. Welcome to the Johnny Jensen show, where modern dads discover how to create the true riches, relationships and results they deserve. Get your high value man blueprint and join our community at highvalue manproject.com. Let's go. Hello men, welcome to this episode of the Johnny Jensen show. Time to cut the crap. One of the core tenets of the

00:41 commitment C of the 3XC formula for living is about cutting the crap inside of commitment basically. So commitment is the third C and one aspect of commitment is cutting the crap. We're going to look today at what it takes not to turn your life into some boring health flipping show, but really just to put the spotlight onto how some of our choices, how some of the ways that we operate fundamentally are holding us back. And so when we're wanting to experience our results, our relationship, our

01:19 thought process, just really how we're functioning and enjoying life, then we have to look at what we're putting in into the machine, crap in, crap out, basically. So cutting the crap is really what today is all going to be about. If you're here for the first time, then welcome. My name is Johnny Jensen. I'm the founder and head coach at the High Value Man Project, where we help men end the stress, optimize their lifestyle and create the relationships they desire so they can be the man they want to be. And if you're interested in getting into our free brotherhood, then simply go to highvalue manproject.com.

01:57 And if you're interested in finding out what it takes to really embrace the high value man lifestyle, then book a power call and get yourself lined up for the inner circle or the elite program that men are working with me one-on-one. You can do that simply going to highvalumanproject.com forward slash apply. That'll get you there. So cutting the crap. I think it's fair to say that I have put a lot of crap in my body through my life and there are still a few guilty pleasures. For a long time, well, back in the dark days of

02:36 the marriage and that breakup and trying to keep the business afloat and looking after kids that were poorly and a wife that was unwell and all the stuff that came there, I was necking way too much monster, which I'm sure you're all familiar with monster, but basically it's like a bigger, louder red ball, basically. So the reason I'm laughing and smiling for those that can't see the video, it is still a little bit of a guilty pleasure. The green one, it stinks and it's horrible, but it is a little bit of a guilty pleasure. One of the things I like about it is it just focuses my mind.

03:20 And there are other ways of doing that. And I'm constantly looking and evolving my supplement stack and the ways in which I practice my mindfulness, whether it's meditation or journaling. And it may be, and I hate to flip and drop this in because it feels like every dickhead's mentioning it these days. But on the level of ADHD, it's likely that something like a can of monster really does actually help me focus. But fundamentally, crap in crap out is what is giving too many men an aspect of the negative experiences of their life. It's the bit that you have probably the most control over.

04:04 How you function, what you eat, what you watch. These are all things. Literally, if we think about, you know, where do we start in the fire code? We start with focus, which is you taking control of the things that you can manage the easiest. No point sitting around waiting for everybody else to change without realizing how much of your experience and joy and results is in your hands. So cutting the crap, like I said, it's not about being the fun police. You can listen, there are dudes out there who've got, you know, YouTube podcasts, you know, they're blowing up and they're very strict about, you know, no alcohol.

04:49 Look what I've achieved by cutting out all this stuff. And without doubt, you know, you can make the case for that. People that have given up booze and, you know, and how it's transformed their life. I have no doubt that that is absolutely true. And if that's what you want to do, and even if you just want to experiment with it to see what it's like, and we're going to mention that actually in a bit, you know, about the benefit of cutting something out for 30 days or 90 days and seeing what the results are, maybe just a reset and then pick it back up again. But for me, it's really about balance.

05:29 I do enjoy a beer or a glass of wine. It's very rare that I get blasted these days. Not so rare when we were younger. Not so rare. But then, having said that, I've grown up on eating well, of exercising, of God, I never really enjoyed fizzy drinks too much when I was a kid, even though my dad had the garage full of them. We could just go and help ourselves as much as we wanted. Now, the only Coca-Cola, I only started really drinking when I started drinking Jack Daniels and Coke, basically.

06:09 So you've got to have a look for yourself at what your lifestyle looks like and start to notice some of the things that we're going to go through now and seeing how many of them are in your life, how prevalent or how much of it is there, and consider what would the impact, what would the benefit, what would the uplift be if you cut some of that out. And most of these things, most of this crap that we put into our body, it's like a payoff. There's some kind of dopamine, joy, adrenaline, energy rush that we get when we take it. But like everything, there's a payoff. Like there's a

06:51 come down, if you like, from those positives. And that, when you consider that, if you're always having to take them to feel good, then there's always going to be an ever-increasing backslide afterwards. And that's where these stimulants, that's where these negatives start to start to play out and impact your life. So let's get into them. Number one, I've got in my list here. I don't know. I'm going to do that one last actually. But the thing that we have, first of all, to look at is our environment.

07:27 You know, it's very easy to say, oh, I'm going to cut this out and I'm going to cut that out. But if the environment we are trying to do that in hasn't shifted, then that actually becomes quite difficult. And at its most basic level, if you're trying to give up smoking, but you hang around with people that smoke, well, guess what? It's going to be bloody hard because all the places they go, all the habits they have, all the routines, all the chit-chat. Now, I'm not saying ditch your mates, but you have to consider if you're trying to give up smoking, but you spend all your time around people that smoke, that's an example of how environment becomes a factor. And when we're talking about cutting the crap, the clutter around you,

08:11 the ability to see clearly in front of you, to have your environment at peace. Like our eyes, without us realizing it, our eyes are constantly registering millions of things every day. And thanks to the wonders of our brain, I think it's our reticulate activating system, but it helps filter those visual and audible and smells, like it filters some of them. Because if you imagined the idea that you could hear and smell and see everything that's going on around us, we'd go absolutely mental.

08:47 But on a more day-to-day level, the amount of clutter and crap in your environment clogs up your mind. It clogs up your ability to move through the day freely. And even in managing your time, if you're constantly having to clear up or move around things, then you've created a cluttered environment. You've now got a cluttered mind and all these other things that we might talk about, that you might try that we're going to talk about afterwards becomes harder. Okay. So have a look. Have a look at what it would look like to clean up, to clear stuff out,

09:28 to get it all on eBay, to take it to the tip, to drop it at the charity shop. What's it going to take to tidy up, clear out your environment? And as you're doing that, particularly around the kitchen, have a look. Have a funny story. We went to did a pretty cool functional fitness event on Saturday, Joe and I. And it was a team-based thing. So you had to do it in pairs. And as I was getting my stuff ready, I asked my kid to help me. me jago and um i said okay get me get me those gel like event gel pack things i need to need to use those so he went and got them and i said what's the what's the best before date on there and he goes oh feb feb 22nd i was like oh

10:11 you could probably already see what's coming but i was just busy and i was like yeah yeah cool chuck them in the bag So then I'm at the event and I'm necking one of these things and it's brown. I'm like, that was not brown last time I had one. So bizarrely, it turned out the best before date was February 22 as in 2022. So there we're about three years out of date. So that's the impact of having crap and clutter and things that are out of date in your life. Next up is, I have made myself notes because that's always handy. Next up is diet and alcohol, right?

10:55 Cutting back on processed foods. You know, you hear about it all the time, like what is the cost of processed foods? Obesity and diabetes. I've even heard it being said now that sugar is one of the primary, it's becoming apparent that sugar is one of the primary factors in the rise in dementia. So all these highly refined and processed foods are all around us. So what's it going to take for you to start cutting them out? Well, pretty much if it's white, if it's white bread, white rice, white sugar, you know, these things are highly processed, pasta even. So can you swap them for whole wheat, whole meal, brown versions of this, or even just cut them out completely.

11:39 Sugar in particular. Sugar is everywhere. It's in flipping everything. Crack open a can of soup. It's got sugar in. Things that you, desserts, bread, even particularly, I don't really drink dairy, but I do have milk substitutes like coconut and almond. And some of them have got a lot of sugar in. So have a look at what you can cut out in terms of your diet. What kind of adjustments that you can make? Could you swap, if you're eating yogurts, could you swap the flavoured, you know, versions for a natural Greek type yogurt?

12:24 But fundamentally, if it's white, like highly refined, then you could probably try and cut it out. Caffeine. Caffeine is a pretty good drug, basically. I enjoy a coffee. It definitely helps kickstart my day. What is not advised is drinking shitloads of it, in particular after sort of three o'clock. If you're, if you don't want it to impact your sleep, regardless of whether you think, oh, it doesn't bother me, cut out caffeine for a period of 30 to 60 days. And first of all, you will experience probably quite harsh headaches.

13:03 And obviously there's some sort of the habitual sides of it where you're missing it, where you, where you, where you, the idea of a lemon and ginger tea is an absolute abomination, not as satisfying. But after three weeks, you know, you actually, your taste buds adjust and you find yourself not craving that thing that you thought you couldn't go without every day. But equally interesting is what time of day you have your first coffee. Definitely try and avoid having your first coffee until about 90 minutes after you've woken up. There's a drug. And listen, I'm not the expert in these things, but I do know a little bit about them. I believe it's a drug called adenosine in our body.

13:45 And it needs to, as I recall, I should just check this out, right? But I'm pretty sure it's part of how we manage our sleep. And what you don't want is to kick the cat, is to kick it out using the caffeine. You want it to naturally wear off after you've been asleep and then, you know, chuck a coffee inside of you after that. So quite frankly, when I get up in the morning, large pint of water or a pint of water, large glass of water, little bit of salt in there, a little bit of lemon, a lemon and ginger tea or whatever tea that I'm more of a herbal type non-caffeine drink there.

14:25 Hot's good because it loosens things up in your chest and stuff. And then kick in the coffee when your day starts. And going back to that point about sugar and stuff, if you're having some super duper Wappuccino with chocolate sprinkles on top, then that is flipping a hoofing great amount of dairy, of sugar, of chocolate. I mean, it's just like, don't do that. Crap in, crap out. Although it might taste fabulous, what's it doing to you? Why do you need that amount of sugar and junk going into you? Have some level of consideration for what you're putting in your body. Have some level of respect for yourself.

15:07 If you're going to the gym and working out, as we do encourage as part of the high value man project, you know, at least three workouts a day, sorry, a week, at least one 5K or more run or other kind of cardiovascular activity. You've got to be working out. You've got to be increasing the muscle in your body. So if you're doing that and then hoofing in sugar casually without even really thinking about it, well, what's the bloody point? Like, that's literally holding yourself back. I said at the beginning, how are you fueling your life? What are you putting in the machine?

15:49 Okay. Alcohol. It really is a question of how much you're drinking. Now, we could argue the toss with people about cutting it out completely. And is it a toxin? Is it making you sluggish? Is it holding back your creativity? It probably is. We all know what it feels like to have a hangover. But the thing comes, and it's always sticks in my mind. A good guy, an athlete in terms of like triathlons and stuff, a businessman. And he gave me a call. This was about a year and a half ago now. And he said, I think I've got a problem. I think I'm drinking at least a bottle of wine a day.

16:32 Now, my dad, my dad would argue that that's okay, but he is 81 and he is an exception to most rules, basically. But this guy was, he's like, he'd have a glass of wine when he kind of, you know, 6:30, finished work, got in, boom, part of his evening routine would be have a glass of wine. Then he'd have his dinner and he'd be like, okay, another glass of wine, maybe a little bit, you know, a glass and a half of wine. And then you sit down on the couch and you look at the bottle of wine. Well, there's only a glass left. Well, it's not really a glass, is it? You know, it's a big glass. But that was his routine. And he was doing, in his own admission, a bottle of red at night and he'd realized it was a problem.

17:18 So you, so I like the social side of having a glass of wine. There are reported health benefits of a glass of red wine. And from a relationship point of view, my girlfriend and I enjoy sitting and having a drink together. Whether that's a cozy drink in the winter, whether it's sat out on the deck in the summer, it's not about cutting all these things out, in my opinion. But it is about recognizing how much you're drinking and what the impact is on you, on your weight, on your heart, on your mental and cognitive skills. Too much alcohol is not good. Next up, sugar.

18:02 I pretty much talked about it, but just have a look at where the good sugars are coming from, right? I mean, that's a bit of a random thing to say. But if you like chocolate, what are the kind of substitutes? You know, could you have dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate? If, you know, what could you do to try and eat more fruit? In my cereal in the morning, I'm making porridge and putting dried cranberries in there and some chaya seeds and some, you know, some seed mix like high and omega-3s. That is infinitely healthier than some kind of bagged up muesly or let alone flipping Frosty's or do like Frosty's is a classic, right?

18:46 Everyone likes a Frosty. But again, that's a hooping amount of sugar and it's not good for you. So pay attention to where the sugar's coming from. Crisps, chips. I mean, have a look, cut it out. Fizzy drinks, we talked about, we talked about monster at the beginning and stuff, but just be aware. Like when you go and get a big drink somewhere and it's, you know, like a three quarters of a liter of fizzy, of Coca-Cola or whatever your preference is, try and quench your thirst with water, with herbal teas, with,

19:27 you know, you can get, we're blokes, right? I get that we're not really going to do much of this, but so rather than spout off about loads of, oh, get this kind of water and get this kind of drinks bottle and get this kind of, and cut out, you know, the plastics and all that sort of stuff. I know we're not going to win, but probably not going to do most of that. but you can become aware of how much of the stuff you are putting in you if you know fizzy water for me is a great substitute in the evening when i fancy a beer or you know and i'll and i'll have a glass of soda water fizzy water and it's actually the bubbles and the and the thirst that i'm quenching it was actually the fact that i was dehydrated and thirsty that that that was was uh was what was having me think about having a beer and on that point by the way how much water you drink is vital some sort of litre and a half to two liters to three liters is is what you should be

20:21 consuming a liter and a half really wouldn't be enough but if you have a pint of class a pint of water when you wake up and you set it on your watch so that you know that um every three hours or so you have another drink if you link it into um moments in your day like they're getting up but you know like when you get home go to the go to the sink neck a neck a pint of water it's very easy to suddenly find yourself two to three liters of water a day and by the way at home get yourself a decent sized water filter jug where you can flip and pipe it in now through through you know and have the filter every part of your sink but the filter i've got and i share the link in in all the the high value man um documents and and and drainings um it's like a four liter jug so

21:12 there's always filtered water available next up takeaway and processed food it blows my mind the whole delivery just eat whatever it's called where you live it blows my mind i i should try i suppose but i i object kind of to the cost i want i want some random to bring me uh in the uk there's a baker's right there everywhere called greg's questionable uh just still fast food but it feels a bit less fast food because you know it's like a it's a sausage roll or it's a sandwich but um people get a gregg's sausage roll delivered to their house and then they pay whatever the sausage roll costs like one pound

22:00 fifty and then pay the delivery charge it just blows my mind mcdonald's you're lucky if they serve it to you hot when you're in the place what's it like after it's been rattling around in some dude's rucksack for the last flipping three kilometers it just boggles my brain and the crazy thing is i think it's the people who least need fast food delivered by someone that are consuming it all so but but be aware my point is be aware how many times are you eating a takeaway how many times are you grabbing food that's a ready meal or packaged up this kind of it is going to be highly processed it's going to have preservatives in it and it's not going to do your body your

22:47 digestion your cognitive skills your sleep it's not going to do it good it's like high in sugar high in salt high in fat cooking fresh is such a positive uh factor in your family and your personal life and your creative abilities again back to the cognitive skills what happens when your brain is working on preparing a meal managing ingredients managing timings managing flavors um like like this is a workout for your mind ripping the top off something and sticking it in for two minutes is the exact antithesis of that it's a shit meal prepared in a shit way that's going to give

23:37 you zero results uh next up drugs i have taken a fair amount of drugs in my time predominantly in the name of fun um and i don't i don't say that with any pride but nor do i say it with any guilt uh what i do have is a load of of fun memories uh from from those days and even now it's not something i would necessarily hunt out but i'm not sure it'd be something i would necessarily say say no to either the problem is when it's when it's a everyday part of how you function you know um

24:19 people who obviously in lots of parts of the world right now cannabis is becoming increasingly legalized you know thc gummies you know it's there are arguments to be made for how it can enhance your creative abilities how it can help you problem solve how it can help you relax how you like i'm not here to say that that they aren't true it's a question of how you're using it or whether it's using you and the impact on relationships on your finances and there's a great difference between um having uh you know you could put alcohol into into drugs or whatever but

25:01 something harder something used on a regular basis i guess i'm picking my words here what i'm really saying is i think we all know people that take drugs generally there was an element of fun in it you have to start to recognize though when that line is crossed between it not being healthy it not being good for your finances it not being good for your relationships it's not being good for your performance in work it's compromising your behavior as a parent uh it's breaking the law at a highly dangerous level you're compromising your integrity um lying um hiding things like like

25:47 this is where the impact starts to come let alone on the physical and mental level so see what it's like if you use these things on a regular basis see what it's like without them cut it out for 10 weeks notice the difference in your life ask the people that care about you most what they think about it and if you find that conversation hard then that will probably be a good indication of how you truly feel about it okay last couple here porn now porn most of us have enjoyed a bit of porn from once for once in a while um

26:27 and you might even enjoy it as a couple uh and we're not going to get into the subject here of of what the porn industry is like and what the impact is on people that are part of it right that's a different subject this subject here today is about the impact of porn on you and your relationship on your relationship with yourself and your relationship with the person that you love there is no denying that um an orgasm feels good and in in many cases can be argued that it's pretty healthy so this isn't a conversation about masturbation or sex or you know but it is a conversation about what happens when you watch porn on a regular basis what happens

27:07 when it's done um out of uh as a result of a breakdown in the intimacy in your relationship because not only then are you using it as a substitute it's how you're feeling about it to yourself like i'm doing this because i'm not getting it elsewhere i'm doing it because she doesn't love me then there becomes this whole kind of cloud around actually what it's all about and then what will she do if she finds out that you're watching it every night then what's going to happen in your relationship what's it doing to um your mindset around sex and intimacy

27:45 what people find when they watch a lot of porn is that their level of intimacy in their relationship actually goes down the level of enjoyment in their sex life actually goes down so before you find yourself using porn on a regular basis as some sort of crutch in your life and if you're single well a little bit here and there is fine but if you're doing it every night then consider anything that you're doing every night uh even going to the gym you can do that to excess okay refocus your energy on building meaning meaningful connections have conversations about sex with your partner have conversations about your fantasies and her fantasies together these conversations are generally felt like a bit awkward but but again like what's the difference between

28:35 this whole point about crap in crap out a porn habit that is a dirty little secret and you feel crap about yourself versus oh an awkward conversation well not really an awkward conversation what if it was a fun conversation that led to you both getting the horn and having great sex surely that is a better outcome okay and um gambling this one's really easy it is the same as porn and i'm gonna i do i'm gonna throw social media here in as well okay right if you're finding yourself great reaching for your phone all the time if you're finding yourself using it as a distraction if you're finding yourself playing little games or having a little gamble

29:15 it's just unnecessary it's taking you away from the people and the places in your life and the reason gambling does that is because if you've got a bet on and you're let's say you're having a family dinner and you're you're thinking about whether that bet's going to pay off or not or whether you should be watching it you're not present in the conversation and if your finances are being strained strained because of your gambling if your relationship is being bestrained because of how much social media or flipping call of duty you're playing these all fall into the same same area for me these gambling companies social media companies games manufacturers they build their services around the reality that we get a dopamine kick from doing these things We get a little dopamine buzz, a little, whoo, the experience.

30:04 Even when we lose, we get the experience, a little high of, yes, it's going to happen. But then there's the crash and we look for the hit again and we go and do it more. And gambling, of course, is a terrible addiction when it grips you. And I've not experienced it myself. I have been, I have had people in my life who have. And if you think you've got a problem, then the first thing to do, a bit like alcohol or drugs, is seek advice, seek support. Even if you're just like, I wonder if, go and ask someone, because if you're thinking, I wonder if, it probably means you are addicted.

30:43 So when you cut the crap, right, there should be an uplift in your life. There should be a benefit that comes from this. And the way you do this and the cut the crap exercise inside of the high value man inner circle is very simple. There's a sheet of paper. You've got the bad habit and you've got the payoff, right? The bad habit is I drink too much. What is the payoff? It feels good. What is the cost? 50 quid a week, a deteriorating relationship, a fat gut, a headache. And then in the fourth and final column, you put the benefit of giving up. The positive outcomes. Now, you might be thinking they're going to happen and you're doing the test it, or you might have been doing this for three weeks and you put it in there as that was the experience.

31:28 That's what I'm getting from this. The opportunity that comes for us as men when we make these adjustments in our lifestyle, when we change our environment, when we control and start to put healthier limits around what we put into our body and what we do with our time, then it frees up space for positive substitutes, for more time to work on ourselves, either in the gym or in business or listening to something useful. It gives us time to start managing our day-to-day moments better because we're being more effective. We're being more decisive. How we show up in our lives to the people that are around us, we're suddenly present.

32:13 We're available. We're full of joy and laughter. We start to look good. We start to be able to play better. We are energized. We're better in bed. We have more enjoyable sex. Like the uplift from cutting the crap is huge and it's totally in your hands. So any of these where you're thinking, yeah, but Johnny, or I couldn't do that, I challenge you to give it a go now. I challenge you to take the next, it could be seven days, it could be 21, it could be 60. But you've got to give yourself a period of time where you can go through the journey, where you can be like, oh, I want a coffee.

32:58 Oh, mint tea tastes like shit. Oh, a bag of mixed nuts is not a bag of Doritos. You have to go through that tricky period where you still want the thing you're giving up and you don't really like the substitute you've put in place. After a period of time, after three or four weeks, that's when your brain, your taste buds, your habits all begin to adjust. And this new way of being starts to become normal, in particular when you start to feel the benefits. Other people notice the benefits. You get the rewards in bed, in work, wherever it might be with your children.

33:41 That's a high-value man way of living. That is an optimized lifestyle. And when we say you end the stress, you optimize your lifestyle and you transform your relationships, they're all interlinked and they are all in your control. I invite you to come and be part of everything we're doing here at the High Value Man Project, whether that's in the free brotherhood community or whether that's getting involved in the inner circle or elite level. The way that you do that is you go to the highvalue manproject.com and you make your choice. I am absolutely thrilled that you've spent this time with me today. Please share this with other men in your world. Remember to like or subscribe if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I would love you to give me a review.

34:23 I keep forgetting to mention this. We will be doing review of the week. I need to get some reviews first. That's why I have to... I'm asking you right now: is go and give a review. There's every chance that you will win the review of the week right now. And that review of the week results in a power call with me. A power call is normally £150 and it's a focus, a deep dive on a particular challenge or goal that you have right now. And we create some tangible actions that you can take to move yourself forward around that particular target. So that's a lot of instructions. Come and get involved at thehighvalumanproject.com.

35:08 Share and like and subscribe and leave a review to this podcast. And I'll see you on the next episode. Let's go. Thanks for tuning in to the Johnny Jensen show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with fellow dads. Creating the life you deserve starts with you. Get your high value man blueprint and join our community of motivated modern dads at highvalumanproject.com. Let's go.