#5 - Conscious Consumption with Zack Langlois

Gary (00:00) Okay, so we're live. So let's get rolling. All right. I'm here with Zach Langa. Is that the proper pronunciation? We, um, Zach Langa, I will allow you to do a bit of a bio, but I've known Zach for, I guess the better part of a year and a half, two years now, right. Um, we got introduced by Freddie. Uh, and, uh, we met at Beatrice. Zack (00:10) Wait. Long word. That's right. Yeah. Gary (00:31) coffee. Well, actually, no, it was the other way around. We met at Beatrice coffee through I forget who the connection was. And I met through I met Freddie through you. So it's been a little bit, man. How are you? Zack (00:34) That's right. Yeah, I'm doing very well, man. Excited to chat with you. It's, yeah, whether it's a coffee shop or jumping on a bit of a podcast, man, our conversations are always epic. So I'm really stoked for this. Gary (00:55) Yeah. Me too. You know, we, we go from a pure caveman to, uh, aspiring Buddhas, um, all in the same conversation. And your company is a, is a testament to both. I would say, Oh, that's very interesting. It is a testament to both, both the inner caveman and the inner Buddha. So how about you just give a little bit of a biozak and then we'll, we'll dig into it. Zack (01:22) Yeah, I mean, hey, I guess by title, I am the CEO and co-founder of Northern Raised. And Northern Raised is a company that is built to connect people with their personal wellbeing through the food on their plate. We do that by delivering natural, sustainable, ethical, and local meats from Ontario farms. And, you know, outside of that, I'm a young father, just a guy that is really, you know, pursuing knowing himself, being the best version of myself. I know that's something you resonate with and how we connect in so many ways. But yeah, man, that maybe as a quick bio is who I am. Gary (01:50) Mm-hmm. Nice, nice, nice. You know, you mentioned, you know, how you double down on food and you mentioned wellness and wellbeing. And so, you know, a lot of people are focused on diet these days, right? But what made you double down on this? Like, this isn't obvious. Zack (02:17) Yeah, I mean, you know, it strikes me as obvious now, but that wasn't always the case, right? If you go back, you know, probably about eight years ago, you would have met a guy that was adrenally shot, emotionally wrecked, worked a corporate job that really destroyed, you know, who I was from my physical body, my emotional stress. And at that moment, that version of myself, that guy, Gary (02:21) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Zack (02:47) Uh, you know, he didn't, it wasn't obvious to him that, you know, eating really good quality, single ingredient food was, was the way, right? Um, you know, he was a guy that was, you know, pretty, pretty caught up in, uh, happy hour beers and, uh, you know, live in, live in that life. And yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, yeah, what, what strikes me as obvious now, um, certainly wasn't at that moment in my life. And it was really a path for me to heal myself. Um, I found lots of. Gary (02:55) Mm-hmm. Yeah, a lot of vanity. Zack (03:16) modalities along the way, food being just like a really great kingpin to, you know, how I could be intentional in what I was consuming and then see a direct kind of biological impact, you know, to my state of being and my physical body, but also to my emotional state too. And that was kind of a cool, you know, feedback loop to compare and to experience something with and that radically trained, trained Gary (03:40) Yeah. Zack (03:46) transformed my life. I'm grateful for that and grateful for uncovering that. And yet, it strikes me as obvious today and has been ingrained as habitual today, but wasn't always the case. Gary (03:48) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, it's obvious today, but few people still do it. So what's obvious doesn't mean it's, uh, it's, uh, you know, being followed by any stretch, you know, you mentioned, you mentioned the connection of the physical to your emotional wellbeing. And I think, I think that's where people fail to really, um, see the true benefit of eating well, you know, we've always felt a certain way. And you and I have quite similar. Zack (04:01) care. Gary (04:26) kind of stories and that, you know, whatever I did the, I did the things and, um, you know, I was with an alcohol company, like it was fairly, uh, fairly hedonistic. Everybody knows that story, but it was really, uh, I got into it kind of a similar way. It's kind of like when things got, when things got really heavy and unhappy, it really was when I started to notice. different behaviors and the impact it was having on my emotional health. Because it was such a nice edge at that point that I think before that there was so much distraction that you don't really notice how you feel. But when you start to eat well and obviously eating it's fundamental. My old gym coach used to say, you eat popcorn, you become popcorn. And, uh, he was right. Right. So I guess what it got down to is, you know, you just notice a lot more when everything is. kind of just dragging you down. And, um, I got into, I got into food similar to you. Like I was always the healthy guy. And you know, when I was a plant manager, I was always doing the smoothies and I've been doing, you know, the superhuman smoothie for, for years. Right. So, you know, I do know for a fact that it is truly, a massive, massive part of my emotional kind of approach to the day. and it goes for working out as well, right? Like we're going to talk about that a bit later, but it's all connected. These are like physical avenues into how we can feel emotionally. So I super resonate with that. Zack (05:58) Yeah, I think, you know, on this path of kind of bringing these things to the forefront, the very first step is awareness, right? And, you know, I like to give the analogy that we're all driving around in a Ferrari, but so few of us know it. Right. And, you know, bringing awareness to what you're consuming, your, your physical state, I think, honestly, Gary, a lot of us have been adjusted to a state of disease and we just wake up feeling like, oh, I guess I'm not really meant to feel well, right? I'm not meant to this is just how it is and that Outsourcing of our of our state of health to you know, just kind of say well This is this is what life looks like after 40 or you know This is just what my body feels like and I can't you know feel any better You know bringing some awareness to that is I think step one for a lot of people in the moment they do get you know, to dip their foot in the pool of like, Oh, wow, you know, like, yeah, take a superhuman smoothie or, you know, focus on your diet for a little while and just get a glimpse into what you're capable of and what your body and what state of being you're capable of. And then turn the rest over to the compounding effect of health, right? Like this is a compounding interest effect that if you do these things repeatedly, and you live, you know, Gary (07:10) Yeah. Zack (07:15) I don't want to get prescriptive about like the diet, a specific diet or anything, but if you live with some basic tenets of health, the compounding interest of a healthy lifestyle will catch up and take over. And all of a sudden then it becomes momentum wind in your sails and you're experiencing transformational results. Gary (07:28) Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I create, you know, I use the term. Well, again, there's going to be a lot of analogies between the physical being the working outside and the eating side. But on the working outside, you'll know this term is progressive overload, right? That's how muscles adapt. We progressively overload them. And with the body, it's kind of like we're doing the same, but we're undoing a lot of the damage we've done. So it's progressively overloading a system that's been calibrated for a horrible, horrible environment. Right? So our bodies have been marshaling resources this whole time, just trying to compensate. And again, you can get away with it in the short game. Our twenties, thirties, you know, alcohol was way more catabolic for me than eating. That's for sure. But the point is, your body has a lot of resources to Marshall when you're young. Right. So it's constantly filling these mineral gaps, these vitamin gaps. Right. But then over time, you know, kind of just like veganism a little bit, some people don't do veganism, right. And in the short term you're fine. But in the mid to long term, you start to, things start to bubble up. So I think, um, when I look at progressive overload at saying, okay, how can you stress that system in a good way, right? To get the outcome you want. And you know, we definitely see it the same In terms of that, you know, I, I kind of get bogged down into how much is enough. You know, like people are listening, you know, quite the noise. It's about feeling your bass, about being fulfilled and it's usually elimination. Right. Um, you know, it's, uh, it's elimination through, through your diet, through emotional, you know, through spiritual. But I guess the point is people obviously aren't quite convinced. Right. So you have a company that provides the highest quality, uh, meets the highest quality proteins, right. But it's a little more expensive, you know, and there's a threshold, right. And you mentioned everybody's driving a Ferrari and doesn't know it. Well, where's that, where's that motivation going to be? Because you've reduced the friction, right? Every decision is motivation friction, right? So you've reduced the friction to get insanely amazing food. Okay. But you haven't necessarily changed people's motivation per se. Well, you probably have, but I mean, society hasn't. So, you know, where does that motivational shift come from? Like, what's the, what's going to move the needle for the average person? Zack (10:12) Yeah, it's a really deep topic, right? Because we're talking about behavior change. So let's start at the systemic level. Like, I think it's important to recognize that the system, the health system, the health landscape that we have is broken, whether that's the food system, whether that's our pharmaceutical system, whether that's the societal norms that we've put in place about what constitutes a healthy lifestyle or the state of being that constitutes health and wellbeing. That... on all fronts that is broken. And we can dive into the brokenness of each one of those strains. But we need to accept that as a general premise at the highest level. When we look down at the individual level, I like to use this analogy or this idea that there are the things that serve us, and then there are loving the things that serve us. So we need to go down an initial path of awareness that uncovers a whole series of things that serve us and experience those things in microcosms. So whether that's an intense, you know, forced period of exercise, whether that's elimination of, you know, caffeine, for example, from your diet or, you know, you're a big fan of prolonged fasting, as am I, right? Bringing some hermetic stressors into the body, into the world to experience the things that serve us. Gary (11:13) Hmm. Zack (11:34) Really, it's an application of willpower in my mind. And that willpower is finite. And that's where the love of finding the thing that serves us starts to step into place. So if we want to truly enact behavior change when it comes to our food, for example, I know that eating a nutrient-dense, whole food, single ingredient diet serves me, but can I love that? Right? Can I fall in love with that to the point where it becomes habitual, where we're actually on behavior change? Because if I don't, and if I don't bring the awareness of that process into how this is serving me and then apply that maybe to greater purpose and connection, meaning in life, yeah, then I'm only as good as my willpower. And quite honestly, my willpower sucks. Gary (12:04) Mm-hmm. Right. The meaning behind it. Yeah. Zack (12:21) Right? Like the moment I wake up a little bit tired, I'm going to turn to, you know, a sugar high. The moment I get home from work and I'm stressed out, I'm going to, you know, crack a beer or pour a drink. Right? Like so. But if I understand that my state of thriving connects me to being a better version of myself, whatever the hat is that I wear, then I'm able to fall in love with these things, these tools that I've found that serve me. Right. I think intense periods of elimination or dedication to a certain program or diet type or whatever, those are beneficial. But again, that's not a long term, that's not longevity in thriving in that state. That's simply applying pressure to a condensed period of, or a condensed system for a moment. Then how can we fall in love with it? And I think that's really where behavior change and systemic change occurs. Gary (12:49) Yeah. Mm hmm. A system. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm hmm. No, it's interesting. You said a bunch of things. Um, one that lands is, you know, rituals. I talked about rituals a lot. Rituals are important, you know, call them habits, routines. I like to call them rituals because there are certain ones that are anchors to your day, right? There are habits, their routines, and there are rituals, you know, habits are these little things, routines, you put a little more thought behind it, but rituals. They're kind of like your sacred cows. So I agree with you. I think there's a sense of, okay, we can do these. Hor medic, uh, call them behaviors. Um, we can do those once in a while. We can do the fast, right? Um, you know, even working out as hermesis, but there are certain ones that you kind of anchor in there now and then cold, hot, all of these things. All of these things are to create these little adaptations, but then there's the power plant. There's the power plant behind everything, right? It's not about hermesis at that point. It is about what are you going to put in your life? What are these rituals going to be that you're going to carry throughout? Um, and obviously it can't get more basic than food. So, you know, I agree with you. I think it's a willpower thing, but you know what willpower is fueled by motivation. You know what I mean? So it's like, you need to be motivated enough to give a shit, right. To, um, want to have that ritual routine and then it's actually sticking to it. It's almost like we graduate from habit to routine to ritual. You know what I mean? And, and you need more motivation. You need to believe more each time, um, to get there. And I think there's one thing we could possibly do. Like, I think you could possibly tell me, because it's super important why it matters, why it matters to eat the way you eat versus somebody who thinks they're eating well. Like. What's the devil in those details? Zack (15:15) Yeah, I mean, along this line of wanting to enact this at a behavioral level, to elevate ourselves to ritual, from habit to ritual, I'll give you my perspective and how this applies and I'm sure it will apply to a lot of folks that are listening. I am a young father to two boys. When I eat single ingredient whole foods, I prioritize adequate protein intake. I eliminate processed sugars and ultra processed foods. And I focus on the other tenets of wellbeing that round out my life, but specific to food. When I invest in my food and consume my food in that manner, I am a better father. Full stop. And it's very difficult if somebody's not a parent to understand the gravity of what that statement means, but to show up as a better father. Gary (16:04) Sure. Zack (16:10) is something that is so core and integral to my being and how I want to show up in a role that I need to play for my sons and in my son's lives, that is so important to me that I don't see another option. And I notice, you know, kids are such a great mirror to this. They're an immediate feedback loop. If I get home at four o'clock and I'm nodding off on the couch and I'm, you know, turning on the TV to, you know, just babysit them for a minute, they know. Gary (16:30) for sure. Zack (16:40) They immediately respond to that, right? They see that dad's not on his game and they're pushing at you going like, dad, let's go, I wanna play. And when you feel like you don't have the tank and the gas to reach that as a parent, it hits, right? And so that at a, you know, I just wanna speak to that on a personal level because that to me is where it becomes ritualistic. My children are a part of my ritual, right? They're a part of the deepest core. Gary (16:47) Mmm. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Zack (17:07) you know, emotional and spiritual components of my life and my identity as a father. So, you know, that's, you know, in a nutshell for me how it shows up. I think there are other ways for people to... And you don't, you just don't, you really don't want to demonize, Gary, right? Like you don't want to get into this like finger pointing of like... Gary (17:27) No, no, for sure. It's not a judgment thing. It's we all have our place, right? Zack (17:31) Right. Yeah. But I do think maybe there's a topic to touch on in terms of, when you're bringing intention to what you consume, I speak a lot on the conscious consumption of food and having a conscious connection with your food. And this is a really great way that becomes a little bit more, call it diet agnostic. And we get out of the granular just a little bit. If we can widen the lens. Gary (17:45) Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. There's no dogma. Zack (18:00) Yeah, I would take the dogma out of it. Then we can look at conscious consumption. And I think that is a way to elevate your consumption game that will bring so much awareness to the process, will bring so much elevation to how you consume food, is to have that conscious connection. So, I don't know if that answers your question on kind of both fronts there. Gary (18:18) Yeah. I love that. No, no, it does. Yeah. No, it does. Like, I guess the first question would, what does being a better father mean? Um, so that was the first question. And then, you know, I want to double click a little bit on that conscious consumption. I love that concept. It resonates similar to slow productivity resonates with me, you know, the slow movement, slow eating, you know, Um, I think conscious, uh, adds another element to it. So we can double down on that, but, um, you know, what does being a better father mean? So I heard you talk about energy, right? Obviously not being able to do the things as a dad. Okay. I get that. That's fairly obvious. Um, but it's also when I hear that and I'm about to have a baby, right? Little Emma's coming a couple of months. So, um, what I've. started realizing recently, and I know this sounds stupid, but I have a dog, you have a dog and I'm telling you dogs. I I'm convinced I like numbers. So let's just say like a range. So humans are like a 20 to 25% out of a hundred and intuition skill, like, you know, the ability there are intuitive ability is like a 20 to 25. Whereas a dog is like a 99. It is like, I'm telling you, it's an energy, be it a smell, it could very well be a smell. Like apparently dog's sense of smell isn't necessarily more powerful than humans, but they can discern a lot more. So it's, unless you're a bloodhound, but just the average dog, right? I heard this recently and it kind of makes sense to me. So now it says it's very discerning. So when you think of The dog reading your energy. I don't know about you, man, but when I'm a little off, and this gets to the point of being a better dad, when I'm a little off, Luna knows I'm off like within seconds. And it's not, I'm not talking about I'm running around yelling. No, I'm just on the couch. I have a state change that I've barely even noticed that I'm not mindful enough at the moment to realize I've had this state change. So I've been mind wandering and I'm in negative place. Luna. will crawl up my body and start licking my face. And I'm telling you, it is a level of intuition that is off the charts. And my point being, as babies, I just realized, and I'm gonna finish my story soon, Zach, but I have a nephew, this is super cool. I think case would be okay me telling this story. So our nephew stayed with us for a bit and he only speaks Spanish. He doesn't really speak English. So we never really communicated. And, um, he was with us for a bit, like enough to observe me for a while. And, uh, he started, um, he started influencing his mom and dad because, because he would see the way I would eat again. I never said a word about it. And he would see me, Oh, Gary doesn't, Gary doesn't eat at night. You know, Gary's not eating this. Gary's not eating that. If you don't do like Gary, you're not going to get muscles. So I obviously was walking around my shirt off a bit, but, um, the point being he associate this and he was such a sponge. And I think as, as babies, and obviously we have advanced language centers and everything, right? Our brain is different. We don't have a fully developed prefrontal cortex. So other parts of our brain are getting all that energy. And I believe they are super intuitive. Like a baby would be like a 70 to an 80. a dog being 99 and you and I are like a 20. So you being a better dad, I think is infinitely more important when they're that young. Does that resonate? Zack (22:15) Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so children are sponges, to your point, they will absorb all of the information that is environmentally available to them. And they are picking up on stuff that we have no idea that level of intuition, especially at that age is really dialed. But they're also a mirror. And when I say that they're a mirror, and this is Gary (22:35) Yeah. Zack (22:41) just something that I'm becoming so much more observant of in life is that so much of our external world simply mirrors back our state of being, right? And if there's a way to get that as an immediate feedback loop, spend some time with some children and watch them mirror your shit back to you. And so oftentimes when I find myself parenting my children, I'm not parenting my kids, I'm parenting myself. I'm parenting whatever I brought into that Gary (22:58) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Zack (23:08) that they've simply just mirrored back to me. They don't, you know, their ability is not, or their intention and, no, I've projected something. They've absorbed that, and then they've mirrored it right back at me, and I'm the one that's emotionally unstable to not be able to alchemize that mirroring back properly and then, you know, bring that out in good quality behavior. I'm the one that has to reparent myself. And so, like when you talk about what, Gary (23:10) Of course. No, this isn't intentional. No, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Zack (23:37) what's a good dad and you said it beautifully like when we talk about to sort of percentages of intuition and how we actually regress in life. I think maybe one of the ideas about how to be a good father but just a good human is how do I reverse that process? Like how do I bring back my intuition in life? How do I remember these states of being that I once could achieve as a Gary (23:59) Yeah, yeah, I love that. Zack (24:05) you know, an infant or a child and bring back some of that childlike, you know, a state of, of wonderment and curiosity and awareness and presence, intuition, empathy. These are all things that we get programmed out and, you know, to tie it back into the food element, like, you know, but biologically we're receiving information constantly from, from all types of sources and, and our food being such a huge determinant of this. Gary (24:06) Yeah, yeah, toddler. Zack (24:34) that I end up taking away my ability to tap into that childlike state of wonderment and connection because of what I'm ingesting. And so when we consume consciously and on a path, if my highest calling is to know myself, but to be a great father, and I can increase my ability to be aware and connect, Gary (24:41) Mm-hmm. I love that. Zack (25:02) through what I consume and use that as this tool, this little mechanism, this little reminder on a daily basis to consume or to be conscious about what I'm consuming, that just brings so much more elevation and awareness to that final goal of saying like, yeah, I wanna be a better father. How do I get there? Well, let's start with like knowing myself and being aware of what I'm consuming. How does that affect my state? How does it affect? Gary (25:05) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Zack (25:28) what's being mirrored back to me both in my life and in my family dynamic. Those are just little reminders, little checkpoints, little awareness points along the way. By the way, that can be achieved without children. I'm not saying you got to go have kids to get it. Gary (25:39) Yeah, yeah. No, no, but it's an obvious mirror. No dude. Like there's a, there's so much in there. Um, so many cool things because it's true. It's true that all these things, when you're mindful, you know, when you're mindful, you're made aware of what's happening, right? And if we take it back, you know, back to the brain, like I'm not a neurologist. Uh, I read a lot about different things, but this is completely just me. kind of spitballing here. So what changes as we age, we develop this more advanced prefrontal cortex, right? So in our twenties that that's finished developing and you know, that brings on a lot of its own, a lot of its own problems, right? We get consumed in that part of our brain. We get consumed at reasoning everything we get consumed at judging. Our ego is really present. So we're being influenced by our, you know, clock. our limbic brain, you know, all of our emotional centers and everything. But we're really, the noise is truly coming from here. So if we talk about quiet, the noise, it's literally all this noise that's being created. So it's kind of muffling the signal of our intuition. So it's funny, you talked about mirroring and the feedback your environment's giving you, you know, I call it engineering your environment. So I have this process, I break life down into eight pillars, you know, partner, family, friends, career. Et cetera, et cetera. So there's these eight pillars of what gives you meaning in life. And what I try to do is I make it less judgmental about who I am as a person and more auditing the environment that I've created. So it's a little bit of the other side of the feedback loop. Compared to your piece, right, because it is a back and forth loop. My environment is imprinting. On my. internal environment and my internal environment is projecting on my external environment, right? So you being intentional internally, you being intentional can start to almost encode, almost like RNA, right? So, you know, we're encoding this external environment. You making a choice to eat well is encoding your external environment. And then you eating well is then the feedback that you provide yourself. So it's this beautiful loop. And You know, I like to work in the external environment because then it just, it kind of starts, it's a chicken before the egg thing. You know what? I know I can reason that this is going to serve me better. And by doing this, it's going to lessen the noise in my mind, lessen that, you know, all those pathological behaviors. So yeah, I love that man. And I think it's, uh, I think it's something everybody can enact because it makes it less about you being a bad person. And you mentioned that we don't want to judge. Zack (28:39) Yeah, you use the word clearing or use the analogy of the signal and having a clear signal. And I think this is a really great analogy on how to sort of connect with this concept is that as we are receiving and transmitting information back and forth, just like our cell service, right, comes and goes. How what can we do to make that signal as clear as possible? Right. Gary (29:06) Exactly. Zack (29:07) What habits can we instill and how can we upgrade those habits from habitual to ritual? Right. I love that jump. Right. So there's that process. But how can we habit stack in order to create an environment where that signal has no interruption to flow clearly? And that's where intuition shows up. That's where clarity and inspiration and empathy and connection. Gary (29:26) Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Zack (29:36) When your signal is clear and you're doing the things like eating, you know, a really, you know, biodiverse, bioavailable, nutrient dense diet that's free of ultra processed crap, when you're moving your body, when you are spending time, you know, in some type of, you know, personal reflection, those types of things are all ways to clear the signal, open up the channels and allow us to get back to that, you know, state of thriving where we can live in. Gary (29:58) Yeah. Zack (30:04) a state of intuition and inspiration. And that, you know, that to me is a beautiful, beautiful place to be. And a big why behind, you know, why I want to show up in this way and what I'm doing and what you commit your life to doing as well. Gary (30:14) you're doing. Yeah. You know, that's why the podcast called quiet the noise, right? We, um, you know, we identify these different sources of noise that muffled that signal. And I couldn't agree more. It is the way to look at it. I know that the more pure that signal is, the more my energy is going to be transmuted into something that I'm going to love, you know, um, that's where my fulfillment comes from. And you mentioned habit stacking, you mentioned compounding interest. It really is compounding interest. It is you get fueled by the feeling of what it feels like when things become clear, like when you have space, you know, I talked about space a lot. So everything we do, it's trying to create space in our mind. And literally the metaphor that I use, the metaphor that I use is. So zero decibels, you know, our drink. So zero decibels, the actual metaphor is when you're on the side of a lake, let's say, you know, there's a little cabin, you know, there's a lake and the lake is still, you got mountains in the background. Maybe you have a fire, you have a little kettle on the fire. You know, you're going to have some French press coffee and you're just sitting there and you're breathing in that pure air and you can smell the, the bacon and the eggs and the, and the steak in the kitchen cooking for breakfast. And you're just there. That is what zero decibels is. That's when there's no noise in your life. It's so all consuming in every sense that all you can do is to be grateful for everything you have. And that's why I use, and I love that metaphor, because that's what I strive for. And look, you know, I call it creating your own blue zone. You know, I live downtown Toronto. If I don't curate my own blue zone, nobody's gonna do it for me. Like I'm not on the side of a lake, you know, with a kettle and the... and the steak in the kitchen. So I love, I love approaching life that way. And yeah, you and I are bang on the same, same page for that. I wanted to, I wanted to ask just really quickly, let's get into the weeds, just a little bit so people kind of have a tangible, a tangible kind of toxin, toxin dump here. So let's talk about. Zack (32:35) Yeah. Gary (32:38) what's not in your meat, like what's not in your foods, um, that we're being exposed to. Cause you know, everybody knows about the mercury and fish, right? Um, just talk a bit more about, and I loved how you brought the emotional state of the animal as well. I think that's super key. So sell me on what's not in the meat. I'd love to, I'd love to see your point of view on this. Zack (32:48) Yep. That is a really cool way to frame that question. What is not there? So, you know, we think about animal protein production on a lot of different tenants, our core ones being that natural, sustainable, ethical, and local, and sort of asking questions around environment on each one of those. But I think specific to your question, we want to think about what is not in the meat in terms of the both the environment and the diet that these animals are consuming, right? So we advocate highly and partner with farmers that are raising animals in a species-specific environment, being fed a species-specific diet. So when we think about what's not in there, it is everything that is not native to that animal's natural state, right? Yeah, so. Gary (33:55) Oh, I love that. Zack (33:57) For cattle, for example, a ruminant animal is meant to graze on pasture, live in a grass-fed environment, remain in that environment for its lifetime. It is not meant to be moved to a feedlot. So our animals are not moved to a feedlot. They are not fed, you know, ultra-processed grains to fatten. Gary (34:16) Sure. Zack (34:22) and then bring them to market. They are not dumped with growth hormones, steroids, antibiotics, et cetera, in order to keep that animal just sort of at a baseline of health that we can basically just keep them alive until it's ready to send off to the processing plant. So that is not what is in our food. Our food does not contain things that are not natural to. Gary (34:28) Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Zack (34:50) the environment in which that animal was supposed to be raised. Gary (34:54) Nice. I love that answer. And you know, it's funny when you're saying that I was, uh, how's those sussing over water yesterday. I went down a rabbit hole, you know, Emma's coming and, um, I'm ultra careful at what my wife consumes. Um, Casey and super, super mindful of what Emma's going to consume. And it starts with water. So I've been doubling down on what's in our water and you know, the whole story with water, they're fine. trace pharmaceuticals in there, they're finding forever chemicals, PFAS in there. And the problem with these chemicals, and I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to be an alarmist, but you know, some chemicals operate at a part per trillion level, and especially on a developing human. So it really worries me, the xenoestrogens, the phthalates, all of that. So point being, I think, I think society wise, we almost... get alarmist when we find out, oh my God, there's, there's trace pharmaceuticals in our water, we got to do something like this is this a massive problem. Yet we all knowingly consume more chemicals in our meat guaranteed than in our water, depending on the meat you buy. So it's funny how I find the framing is very different. We kind of rationalize it because of the money. the money behind buying good food, you know, water's free, right? So God forbid there be anything in there. It doesn't cost us anything to complain about it. But for me, it costs us something. It costs us something to make that choice. And I think I love the way you framed it, but I think people have to start realizing, start to make those connections that a chemical is a chemical. And if you're worried about the source of chemicals here, then really how much you're worried about it. Like how much do you really believe it's a problem? If you're not willing to make a small dietary adjustment. Um, and again, people don't have to eat a 12 ounce filet mignon every night. That's a lot of meat, but you know what? Treat meat as a, as a delicacy, you know, treated as your four to five ounce. Piece of filet or rib steak, you know, like we don't need to be gluttons, you know, everybody, everybody's a associate steak with being gluttonous in this, but no, it can be, it can be a super nutrient dense. especially what you sell, a really key part to a great diet to make you feel good. I think people need to make that connection more. Zack (37:29) bunch of stuff there resonated on a bunch of levels, right? You are right from a consumption perspective, the idea that consuming meat is unattainable because it is costly, yet you will drive through the Starbucks drive-through twice a day, there's a broken connection there, right? And we've got this notion Gary (37:54) Yeah, no questions asked. Zack (37:58) And it is through a bit of an over consumption mindset. Like, you know, you walk into Costco and you see a flat of 20 chicken breasts in a pack or whatever, and you're thinking like, Oh my God, is that, is that how I have to buy meat in order to consume meat? Right. And every, yeah, every man commercial you've ever seen for steak and beer is, is mountains of food, right? Exactly. So we need to reframe that when we talk about Gary (38:19) Yeah, it's a 16 ounce steak. Zack (38:26) meat as nutrient dense fuel, you don't have to consume a 16 ounce steak to get there. That's the point of nutrient density. And if you're going to consume meat, you don't have to go the Costco route. You can purchase from a local farmer. You can create your own blue zone. It's what Northern Raised has done in a sense. We have been able, we've added to Gary's ability to create a blue zone within Toronto. Gary (38:49) Yeah, I love that. Zack (38:54) you know, in the downtown core by bringing the farm to you. I'll deliver this right to your front door. Right. And so, you know, not only do you not have to over consume, you know, we have something like 50, it's close to 47, 48% food waste in Canada. Like when people talk about the cost of food, yet we, we throw out 48% of what's, of what, what's purchased. Like imagine if you walked into the grocery store having spent, you know, 250, 300 bucks. Gary (38:56) Hmm Yeah, I love that. That's genius. I know, it's insane, it's insane. Zack (39:24) and I just walked up to your cart and I grabbed 50% of it and threw it on the ground and said, okay, go home and consume the rest. You'd be pissed. You'd be pissed because you would see in that moment that food is an investment going to waste. But when it comes to having leftovers sat in your fridge or, you know, and this kind of gets to a deeper, when we talk about that conscious consumption, it gets to a more of a disconnection level, right? Gary (39:27) Yeah. Yeah, it's insane. Zack (39:50) When we consume a diet that is rich in ultra processed foods, we lack any need to have a conscious connection with that food. I can simply discard ultra processed food and not think anything of it. There's no life force that's come with that. There's no, exactly. So, but, you know, but, but right, rewrite the script on that. All of a sudden we're connecting with knowing where our food comes from, understanding the process, have being. Gary (39:58) Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, there's no name there. It's kind of anonymous. Yeah, exactly. Zack (40:19) given transparency to that process, which has been completely destroyed, right? That's what my hope on, you know, what I'm passionate about is restoring those connection points so that when it comes time to consume, you can do so consciously, you can do so in a connected way that encourages a lack of, or it discourages the ultra consumption mindset. It encourages Gary (40:24) that. Hmm. Yeah, yeah. Zack (40:44) you know, quality over quantity, and it brings that value, restores the value back to the purchase of food rather than simply just saying, well, you know, I can't afford meat because it's a premium item. Well, you can afford your three trips to Starbucks over a weekend, you know, the harsh reality is you can afford to eat some better quality food. Gary (40:56) course. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You said, you said a bunch of good things there. Um, I want to dig into, I think there was an aha moment for me and I love it. Like I love, when you mentioned connection and we so often gloss over this, but it's super interesting when you look at conscious consumption and you look at, um, because I buy my eggs from the farmers from a Mennonite farmer on Saturday mornings. They come here. from St. Jacob's, right? I live next to St. Lawrence Market. So I'm super lucky. The farm literally comes to me every weekend and pretty much every day. But when I eat those eggs, I literally do feel different. Like I literally do feel more connected. I feel way better eating those eggs. And I feel way better eating my smoothie. Like I'm very connected with my food and I, it feels great. And when you mentioned conscious consumption, yeah, we can, we can actually fuel this connection by knowing where the meat comes from. Every time you're going to take a bite into this meat, you know you're ingesting goodness. And I think it's just so important from a mental standpoint. And it almost is the conscious consumption comes automatically when you're connected with your food. You don't have to think about it. You just literally are eating more consciously. So it's not like this thing I have to write down a routine or a task. No, no, it's gonna actually create what I'm seeking just by changing each of these components the best I can. And again, it's no judgment, but I think that's really awesome unlock. And I think, yeah, you should almost have a conscious consumption starter pack. That'd really be cool. Zack (43:01) Thank you. Gary (43:02) We're not going to come up with marketing things today, but I love it, dude. I love it. You know, since we're talking about food, I talked about this all time. I'm a self-proclaimed protein expert. I know you like to work out. I like to work out. My working out has changed. I saw you lift in 315 pounds the other day. That's a big man bench. Not too many people doing 315. Probably one in, I don't know. 2000, maybe 5,000. So that's rarefied air you're breathing. So all that being said, when we look at the amount of protein we need, so I've been doing some digging there and I think the consensus is, you listen to Stu Phillips and there was another gentleman I listened to the other day and it kind of triangulated at this 40 to 45 grams of good protein in a sitting. to essentially kickstart muscle protein synthesis. So everybody knows that everything happening in your body is protein-based essentially. Like all these enzymes, all these reactions are all catalyzed by enzymes that are built from amino acids that are built from proteins. So our body favors, right? Favors creating these enzymes and keeping the body running. And then above a certain threshold, And this is potentially leucine dependent. So that's a key branch chain, but we're not getting into too much detail. But at around 25, 30 grams, your body kicks into, okay, I have enough protein. I'm gonna start building muscle. And we're constantly between anabolism and catabolism, right? We're constantly either between muscle protein synthesis or a deficit where our muscles are actually being used as a battery to fuel the body with those amino acids, being broken down to make sure the body runs. So protein is insanely insanely important. So I just wanted to kind of talk about, okay, in a sitting, if it's, let's say 45 to 50 grams of protein, now, I don't know how much you weigh, but say you're 200 and change. We're consuming about 1.6 to 2 grams of protein a day. And let's say we're breaking it down into three times 50 to 60 grams a sitting, maybe with a couple of snacks, you and I. If you're going to grab a piece of your meat, what would a typical meal look like for you, if that's the framework? Zack (45:28) Yeah. So agree on a whole bunch of fronts there. So I can speak kind of personally. So I weigh about 205 pounds on a good day. I aim for somewhere around a gram of protein per pound of body weight as a general rule throughout my day. Yeah. And so for me, that's very much fueled by up. Gary (45:44) Okay. So it's about 2.2 per kilo. Yeah. Zack (45:55) performance based lifestyle for me at this moment in time and just kind of where my personal physical activity lies, that's appropriate. For me in terms of the content of my food, absolutely. Aiming somewhere in around 40 to 50 grams of protein. Typically, I like to focus on ruminant proteins. So a lot of beef and lamb are my preferred. Gary (46:18) Yeah. Oh, nice. Very dense. Yeah. Big time. Zack (46:22) proteins I find from a nutrient density standpoint, we're getting a more well-rounded nutritional content in those meals. If you're looking for something that obviously has a significantly higher protein content but has leaner qualities to it and a lower caloric impact, then you're going to look at meats like chicken. Gary (46:44) Yeah. Yeah yeah, check in. Zack (46:47) albeit though you are sacrificing some nutrient density in that. Yeah, so, you know, like that's sort of so for me, I tend to focus on, you know, really good quality ruminant protein, a big fan, even of like really simple stuff, a lot of my breakfast and the way that I break my fast is, you know, something like a, you know, a good quality ground beef. Gary (46:50) Yeah, for sure. And protein density as well. Zack (47:13) Some eggs a little bit of fermented foods. I'm a big fan of you know, kimchi or sauerkraut. Yeah You know, so I like to I like to kind of combine those and then you know Typically, I'll look for some type of low glycemic impact fruit to pair with it, you know, I really enjoy berries I think are probably the kingpin. Yep. Yep You know that to me is kind of a pretty staple start and then I will I will just Gary (47:18) Yeah, I see your kimchi. Yeah, yeah, me too. Sauerkraut too. Like berries, yeah, it's a safe bet. Thanks for watching guys. Zack (47:42) heat that and I'll build a little bit of complex carbohydrate intake into like the middle of my day, you know, just as a good energy source and depending on what I'm getting into from a physical activity standpoint, you know, we'll like up or down regulate that. But yeah, I think, you know, to your point, there's a lot of really good information coming to, you know, to lighten human in human studies now around the importance of protein intake for longevity. Gary (48:10) Yeah, Sir Copenio, all that jazz. Yeah. Zack (48:12) Yep. Yeah. Catabolic versus, you know, versus anabolic states. You know, I think we need to retain a certain anabolic threshold as we age. That's an incredibly important thing for, you know, muscle density and really informing the body to grow and recover. There is some, you know, I think, caution around like mTOR activation and things like that and cancer markers. My personal view on that is Gary (48:15) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Zack (48:41) that most of our population is living far below a protein intake that would put us in that type of state. Gary (48:46) No, I agree. I agree. And that's not binary. I've dug into that, um, at infinite. Um, and, uh, yeah, the jury's still out on the net effect. You know, look, I truly do believe if the body is put in a state of growth, naturally it's meant to, if the body is put into a state of growth, unnaturally it's not meant to. That's my belief. So if you're taking a human growth hormone or a steroid, I believe that is an unnatural input that will not necessarily serve you net-net. Yeah, it'll give you the growth. But again, we're talking about the opportunity cost for that growth. And I truly do believe that to your point, the mTOR conversation, I truly do believe the net-net is still a huge positive. The body's reacting to what you're giving it. Zack (49:48) This is reminding me actually of a conversation that you and I had when we were talking about aging and I think you're a little older than I am and I was asking you about, you know, what are the key markers to kind of, you know, age at the state that you've been able to achieve from a physicality perspective and you talked about the need to keep the body under a state of growth for, you know, as you age, right? And so that really stuck with me. Gary (50:12) Exactly. Zack (50:14) that if you are constantly informing your body that we're still growing, you know, we're still able to bear a certain amount of stress, whether that is, you know, it's all hermetic stress, right? So whether we're cold plunging or whether we're working out in the gym and exposing our bodies to physical load, I think that's a great way to kind of retain that anabolic growth state. And then from a food perspective, an intake perspective, then inform your biology. Gary (50:19) Yeah. Of course, yeah. Working out, yeah. Zack (50:41) through what you're consuming to heal and repair. And that comes primarily with a really healthy protein intake that I think there's some variance out in the research, but somewhere in pounds at least, or grams per pound of body weight, 0.75 to about a pound, or sorry, 0.75 or a gram of protein per pound of body weight seems to be in line with sort Gary (50:44) Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm, big time. Yeah, yeah, it's, yeah, it seems like that's the jam. Um, and you made a good point. Now, again, the research would tell us that as we age, we become less efficient at protein synthesis. However, we can offset that by increased protein consumption and better protein consumption. So, um, so that's a choice. And again, we're always growing because we're always, um, Zack (51:10) you know, optimal intake. Gary (51:38) we're always falling apart. Like, so, you know, we're just treading water. I'm just treading water. I'm not going from 200, I've been 200 pounds for 20 years, like literally plus or minus a pound. It's a little insane, but you know, I can see myself and I'll calibrate and I'll work 10% harder every decade and I'll eat 10% more protein every decade. per day type of deal. Like, so I'm constantly kind of calibrating. Those are the two levers, right? It's the load you put in your body and it's how you feed it. I'm constantly calibrating those to get to that place where I have the growth to offset the increased rate at how I'm falling apart, right? So, you know, again, it gets back to the emperor conversation but I truly do believe we're treading water here. I'm not growing from 200 to 300 pounds, right? So... So I love that. Um, we're going to have to wrap it up. She's, we could talk for, uh, we could talk for days. Um, but there's a lot of, a lot of really cool things, brother. Um, before we forget, um, how can people check you out? Um, your handle, the website, all that jazz. Zack (52:44) Yeah, I mean, love to connect personally on all these types of things. So, you know, but Instagram is a great way to find me. It's zac.langois and you can also find Northern Rays, northernrays.ca, northernraysmeets on Instagram, both, you know, great starting points and lots of information there. I always love to connect, you know, personally and have these types of conversations. You know, we can, we could go down some, some fun rabbit holes, you know, and whether, whether it's on, you know, more of that kind of biological and performance side or whether it's on the conscious connection and, you know, spiritual emotional side of this, I think really all of these I'd like to see as a, we're a giant system made up of systems, right? And so we need to honor all parts of these systems and it's, it's so cool to explore how they all work together, right? That we can. Gary (53:09) Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah. Zack (53:35) dive down some biological rabbit hole and then tie it back to, you know, conscious consumption. And it just, it all symbiotically works to achieve homeostasis, right? We are, we are all on this path to achieve a state of, um, a state of balance. So yeah, no, that's, that's where you can find me. And I love to, to do all of that. Gary (53:36) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah. It's almost like fascia. You know, our fascia is all connected, kind of like a spider web, right? If something happens in one part of your body, you might feel the effects of it in another part of your body. Um, so it's super interesting how so many of these concepts show up in nature, you know? And I think, uh, there's a, there's a, I don't know if it's a realm of science or there's a study called biomimicry. Right. And it's, it's actually looking at, at different insects, animals, and, um, looking at certain, certain biological processes and traits and how we can, we can kind of mimic those such as the tensile strength of a spider web. You know what I mean? Um, but that's super, super cool. You know what? We're going to have to chat again because we didn't even talk about the physical piece. You know, you have a really good physical, um, program, uh, you and I, um, yeah, you and I could jam. Zack (54:34) Hmm. Gary (54:50) and jam pretty good on that actually for a while. And that could be like a quiet the noise episode and how we move, right? And we could focus on growth. I think that'd be super cool. And I'd also like to maybe dig in on another episode on conscious connection to everything we do. I think food was a nice little teaser, but I think we could just go down the rabbit hole of that in general. And that would be tons of rabbit holes. Zack (55:20) Beautiful. I love both of those things, man. Gary (55:21) Awesome dude. Wicked, wicked. Well thanks so much, Zach. You know where to find him. And once again, thanks for joining us on Quiet the Noise. Awesome, dude. I'm going to stop it here. Zack (55:31) Okay.