Episode 582: How Constant Health Optimization Makes Us Less Happy and Healthy
Habits and Hustle - Jen Cohen
In this episode of Habits & Hustle, Jen Cohen and guest Shani Suisa explore the growing trend of constant health optimization through wearab
Key takeaways
- Over-optimization of health through technology and routines can lead to anxiety, stress, and reduced quality of life.
- People who are truly healthy often don't rely on gadgets or extreme measures—natural intuition about well-being is more sustainable.
Main topics
- The rise of health-tracking technology (Oura rings, Apple Watch, glucose monitors)
- The psychological cost of constant self-monitoring
Notable quotes
"If you're just skinny, but you have no muscle on your body, well, that's not so great either."
"I'm working out, crushing it, getting super fit to stay home alone to watch Netflix. Literally, that is literally what's gone on."
Conclusion
While small improvements in health and performance can be beneficial, the episode concludes
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:01) Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits & Hustle. Crush it! Speaker 1 (0:06) Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank our sponsor, Momentus. When your goal is healthspan, living better and longer, there are very few non-negotiables. One of them, quality. And when it comes to supplements designed for high performers, nobody does it better than Momentus. Momentus goes all in on NSF certification, which means every single batch is tested for heavy metals, harmful additives, and label accuracy. And that's why they're trusted by all 32 NFL teams and top collegiate sports dietitians across the country. Here's the thing. They don't sell every supplement under the sun because they believe in nailing the basics with rock solid consistency. And those basics are protein and creatine. Momentous sources CreaPure. the purest form of creatine monohydrate available, an absolute must for both men and women who want peak physical and cognitive performance. So if you're serious about leveling up, go to livemomentous.com and use code JEN for 20 % off. Just act now. Start today. JEN for 20 % off. livemomentous.com. Speaker 1 (1:30) Hi, everybody. Welcome to another, I guess, quasi-solo episode of Habits & Hustle, because I am joined by my very favorite foiler. I'm the voice in your head. Yes. Shani Suisa, who I just kind of gab with for about 15, 20 minutes on these episodes and just kind of do a hot take of some kind. And so she's joining us again. But before we even get into the episode, I want to make sure I tell you guys all this, because I always forget. Please, guys. If you have not subscribed to this podcast, either through any platform, I don't know, it could be Spotify, iTunes, it could be YouTube, I don't care. Please press the button. It makes a massive difference in the algorithm and it really helps. And I've been extremely remiss to tell people this for, what, six years? So maybe we should, if you guys listen to this, it takes two seconds and I will greatly appreciate it. Wow. So with that being said, let's move on to the episode. Shani, thank you for being here. Speaker 2 (2:29) Thank you so much for having me. You're so Speaker 1 (2:32) welcome. Okay. I want to talk to you about something that I think is, I'm just going to say it and then you can tell me what your thoughts are. Okay. Okay. So this episode is going to be about, do you think optimizing is making us less happy? Speaker 2 (2:48) It's so funny because I was just thinking about buying an Oura ring and in my mind, I was like, do I want to do that? Because I honestly hate walking around with my phone. I'd much rather like leave it, but I want to track my steps. But, Speaker 1 (3:00) you know, I track my steps. It's at the Gateway Drive. They're tracking every single thing in the Speaker 2 (3:03) world. Speaker 1 (3:04) Why can't you track your steps on your watch? I guess then you're again. I don't have a watch. No, Speaker 2 (3:07) you Speaker 1 (3:07) can wear it. Like I track my steps on my Apple Watch. But this is the thing, right? Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:12) but Speaker 1 (3:12) I don't have one. I don't buy an Apple Watch. Like, listen, you know what? That's true. It's either one or a ring or whatever. I guess it's the same thing. I guess this is my point, right? Like I'm a big optimizer, right? Like this whole podcast, my whole life is about like how to make you better, even 1 % better, you know, in a year, right? Like how do we make our physical health better? How do we make our mental health better? How do we make our emotional, spiritual, everything health better? But I do think that it's becoming such an obsession. in the world right now, or maybe it's, I'm not sure actually if it's the world I'm in, or if it's really just like really becoming the big, big, big trend of like outside of my own vortex. Because honestly, like when I watch things everywhere, see people, everyone's wearing an Oura ring. Everyone's wearing an Apple watch. Everyone is, you know, are doing these things, which I think is good to an extent, but where is the line of it? taking over and controlling your life to a place where you are kind of optimizing everything and trying to hack everything to get a certain score where you're not having like the hat, like your happiness is now like not even being considered or you're like, you know, just your overall just. You know, just being is not being. Everything is now like gamified to a place where it's stressful. Speaker 2 (4:35) You know, I just think that there's like you have to find the balance, like what's healthy optimization and what's psychosis, what's going to make you go crazy. And I feel like that's the there's there's a it's hard to find. I mean, Brian Johnson. Johnson or Johnson or whatever. Oh, Speaker 1 (4:48) that's a Speaker 2 (4:48) really good point. I Speaker 1 (4:49) mean, Speaker 2 (4:49) he just got this whole autoimmune disease because of all of his optimization. Speaker 1 (4:52) Let's talk about it. That's a really good point. So Brian Johnson spends, what, $2 million a year? Insane. On his longevity, his health. And now he just came down with this autoimmune disease. You know, you can argue maybe he always had some of it. Maybe he had it, but it was... He gave himself that. I heard him in an interview saying that maybe, you know, of course he's going to say this, but like maybe it would have been worse if it wasn't him doing all