A day in the life of Dr. Uche Odiatu is this week’s TIPisode! Dr. Odiatu walks his talk and you can get a glimpse into what he does to keep fit, healthy, and happy!
Dr. Odiatu is a practicing dentist, certified trainer, author, speaker, and repeat AToTH guest. He always brings us content that we can use to make us and our patients happy and healthy. Be sure to check out the many episodes with Dr. Uche and head over to our YouTube channel and watch the videos Dr. Uche and Michelle did to help you stretch and take care of your body!
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Book: The Miracle of Health
For your reading pleasure this TIPisode has been transcribed:
A Tale of Two Hygienists presents this week’s TIPisode: Quick and easy tips to keep you up to date, and presented by the experts in the profession. Now, get ready for your unofficial TIPisode.
So we have a really fun live TIPisode — kind of live. Well, we’re in person, and we don’t usually do this. But I’m here with Doctor Uche Odiatu. We are at the Collaboration Cures with [indiscernible], AAOSH, AAPMD, ACAM — there’s, like, all of — I don’t — I can’t even remember all of them. And you’re going to tell me how you biohack your day. A day in the life of Uche Odiatu, like, what does that look like?
Uche Odiatu: Sure. Well, it starts the night before. The day starts the night before. So I really — it’s when do I go to bed. And I used to brag how little sleep I needed.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: Then I realized how neophyte and how dumb I was. And it wasn’t until I met one of my exercise scientist mentors that said, “If you’re sleeping less than six hours a night, you’re not doing anyone use, and you’re going to shortchange your life by a decade.”
Michelle Strange: Oh.
Uche Odiatu: So I don’t need much to correct me. So I’m — there’s nothing wrong with a midlife correction, so I’m now aiming to get minimum seven hours of sleep.
Michelle Strange: Okay.
Uche Odiatu: I know blue light blocking glasses are great two hours before. For me, I try and do things very easily and effortlessly, so I started off with just a half an hour before bed I put on these orange glasses. I got them from Amazon; Spectrum is the company and no association with it. But I basically do half an hour, and basically it gives me the prompt that I’m preparing. It’s my sleep hygiene. I start putting stuff away, I don’t put any bright lights on, and it’s my cue to my body things are winding down just like in the caveman days it was the fire after sunset. So my orange glasses is my primitive million-year-old caveman-like body slowly gearing down.
No food within two hours of bedtime, especially any heavy meals is important. I’ve heard time and time again how digesting food at night sabotages your night sleep and you wake up tired even with eight hour sleep. So a little bit of water just to — so I’m not parched. Pitch black room. Cooler room. Pillows very flat or none. Now, I’ve started realizing that for me, it’s no pillows.
Michelle Strange: I don’t sleep with pillows either. Just naturally.
Uche Odiatu: There was no pillows back in the day. Yeah. Yeah.
Michelle Strange: Hmm. I didn’t — I thought that was maybe an unhealthy thing.
Uche Odiatu: Nope.
Michelle Strange: Like I needed to be — I don’t know why, but I just wake up naturally without pillows.
Uche Odiatu: Yeah. As long as — if you’re sleeping on your stomach and your head’s twisted, it’s not good.
Michelle Strange: No. No.
Uche Odiatu: But no pillows or it falls away to the wayside.
So minimum seven hours of sleep. Nine is the — I got nine last night, but the sweet spot for me is seven to eight. I wake up with an alarm. It’s my iPhone. But I’ve also put it on airplane mode many times. I keep hearing how bad it is to have your phone, with the earth spinning a thousand times an hour and then having satellites booming down updates and messages to you, how toxic that is. So EMF, I just heard an hour session on it.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: So it reminded me that I’m really good in airplane mode. And that’s my alarm.
I often charge my phone but away from me. So my phone is being charged 10 hours — 12 — sorry, 10 to 12 feet away from me just knowing that charging is where a lot of power gets pumped into my phone.
And waking up, I do some gentle stretching first thing in the morning. It’s funny how that alarm goes. It’s no crazy song. I want — you know, do you have 911 kind of de-jacked up like Ozzy Osbourne? It’s very gentle kind of a nature wakening. I do some gentle stretching. Just be thankful for another day.
Michelle Strange: And they can watch our video that we did back at Yankee, and that’s on YouTube.
Uche Odiatu: Yes.
Michelle Strange: They can go and watch those stretching that you do before bed and af — when you wake up in the morning.
Uche Odiatu: No. More up in the morning. I don’t have real problems going to sleep, but getting up I just want to get a gentle introduction to the day, so.
Michelle Strange: Okay.
Uche Odiatu: I’m not really — I’m a — grew up Christian, but I’m — it’s the spiritual practice, basically, is being thankful for the day. You know, 200,000 people don’t wake up every day. That’s how many people actually die every day. So just one knee to the chest laying on my back; another knee to my chest breathing in gently; both knees to my chest, the first hug of the day; thread the needle; letting my knees fall to the side each way. And that takes about a minute and a half, and then I’ll just get up.
I’ll often put water on my face right away. People who will put the water — tap water is fine with me. Sometimes I’ll pre-pour a glass of water that’s filtered, but I’m fine with tap water, most of us.
Michelle Strange: Like you’re not even out of the bed before you’re doing this?
Uche Odiatu: No, that’s all done.
Michelle Strange: Okay. Okay.
Uche Odiatu: So I’m [indiscernible] bed now for the stretching. I don’t have a minifridge right beside my bed.
Michelle Strange: I was like, wait a second. How does this look in the bed? [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: Yeah. No, no. No, no. I —
Michelle Strange: Like, splashing water on your face?
Uche Odiatu: Exactly. No, I don’t have a little spritz. Like, no.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: So I change — shower and I change and I’m ready and I’m, boom, downstairs. And I’ll often, out of convenience, do a shake if I’m rushed for time. So I do a shake with fiber in it, six or seven grams of fiber, which is — they’ve shown — immunologists and microbiologists have shown that fiber is the key — you have a keystone relationship with your gut flora and fiber. And 97 percent of Americans or north — Canadians for that matter too — don’t eat enough fiber every day. 97 percent. So, if your gut flora, your bacteria what basically keep us alive don’t get what they want, our whole health is sabotaged.
Basically, a lot of reasons why people have chronic inflammation and low energy and nonlucid thoughts and immunolical [phonetic] problems because their bacteria is not getting the fiber they want. So a seven-gram fiber shake is amazing. If I have time, which is about three or four days a week, I’ll make a scrambled egg concoction, which I’m kind of famous for on Instagram. But it’s kale, asparagus, turmeric, olive oil, coconut oil, cherry tomatoes, spinach with —
Michelle Strange: Mm-hmm. Mushrooms.
Uche Odiatu: — mushrooms of — ergothioneine we talked about last night.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: So that was a great dinner. And then the whole thing about it is that — with ergothioneine, they’re talking about being called — they’re going to have it called a second vitamin. The last vitamin was named in 1948. But a bunch of us ate at The Farm Table yesterday, and we were talking about how ergothioneine is so cool. So mushrooms three, four days a week for me, and then I’m out the door, usually.
I would rather train, exercise, and workout first thing in the morning. All the exercise scientists and sleep specialists say first thing in the morning is ideal. It just doesn’t work for me. So it might be the most ideal time for testosterone and growth hormone and cortisol, but for me, it’s nighttime. So it’s not the best time, but I’m not perfect, and I’m a student. So evening time, I’ll exercise between 8 and 11 o’clock at night.
Michelle Strange: Oh, my gosh.
Uche Odiatu: Yeah. That’s when I do my hot yoga. The yoga studio is seven minutes from the house, so I often do yoga two, three times a week at night. My lifting weights is two, three times a week at night. I never have problems going to sleep.
But body fat is — I got tested — was like 11 percent yesterday. Not bragging, but that’s pretty good at half a century old. So 11 percent body fat.
So work, I’ll often — I’m hydrating all the time. I’ll drink a 10-ounce thing of water on the way to work. I’ll often squeeze some lemon in. I was putting brags in before. I’ve used apple cider vinegar in before. I keep my Invisalign trays out because I don’t want that acid locked in and making — and softening my enamel.
Michelle Strange: Mm-hmm.
Uche Odiatu: So I’m at work now. I’ve either had the scrambled eggs concoction or the shake concoction. Snacking throughout the day is very light like either plain greek yogurt with some nuts in it maybe three hours later. Lunch — we work — practice very close to a Starbucks, so I’ll often have the feta cheese cage free egg wrap. I think it’s like $4. I’ll have dark roast Arabica coffee because it’s got the most polyphenols inside. At Starbucks, a little harsh but usually I drink it black. But I’ve started putting some 2 percent milk in, and I put a splash of cinnamon in.
Michelle Strange: Ah, I love cinnamon.
Uche Odiatu: I’ll use Stevia as my only sweetener. I’ll use Stevia and then mix it up. It’s a great way to relax. I try to do it in the sun because all my sleep information told me that you need to get some sun on your skin before noon, and it’s the best way to reset your circadian rhythm.
Michelle Strange: Okay.
Uche Odiatu: So one of us — so many of us because we haven’t been outside all day, our bodies, which are ancient and spent most of the day outside, hate being inside.
Michelle Strange: Yeah.
Uche Odiatu: And, because we’re a million years old, our physiology — what we really want to do is your body needs to hear that it’s daylight outside. So spending 3, 4, 5, 10 minutes outside at Starbucks at an outdoor café looking up some notes or a laptop, it’s a great way to rejuvenate my — it’s called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and that’s basically the part of your brain that actually orientates you to know that it’s daylight.
Again, work is pretty busy. At the dental office anywhere from 8 to 10 hours sometimes. I bring lots — I have lots of food in the office. I have apples. I have nuts. I don’t constantly snack, but I usually have something to eat every three, four hours.
Michelle Strange: Okay.
Uche Odiatu: If I miss a meal, though, it just means I’m doing intermittent fasting. One of the books I’ve ready recently by Giulia Enders out of Germany — the book is called Gut — said the new science of intermittent fasting said taking five hours between meals could be ideal. So every now and then I’ll have a five-hour break. I was first introduced to me about intermittent fasting and I started reading about it when I was on a Southwest Airlines flight and they said no food. I’m like, “no food from Arizona to Baltimore. Are you crazy?” Then I read a [sic] article on intermittent fasting and it said, “Southwest Airlines is —
Michelle Strange: You can do it.
Uche Odiatu: — keeping us all alive and healthy by doing intermittent fasting.”
Dinner, again, tons of greens, tons of vegetables. I’m a huge believer in variety. I — every week, I try and have a new vegetable like leeks, scallions, bok choy, artichokes, arugula — am I saying that right? I never seem to say it right.
Michelle Strange: Yeah. I think so.
Uche Odiatu: Okay. There you go. Kale.
Most food is — I think 90 percent of the food that — meat I’ll eat is hormone free, grass fed, antibiotic free just because of the disruption of the biome. However, if someone invited me over to their house and they had steak and it was regular meat, I eat it because there’s a concept called hormesis, which means every now and then have something that is maybe not as great for you. What it does — it trains your body to withstand the storm just like exercise actually is basically stressful for your body but the body rebuilds stronger and more toned after exercise. So having a martini at dinner or half a bottle of wine even, I don’t shun away from it. And I think people are surprised that I’ll have a drink. I can’t believe you eat meat. “You’ll stay up all night?” Well, every now and then I —
Michelle Strange: Have a moment.
Uche Odiatu: — have a moment where I go, you know what? This body needs to be able to — if I had to sandbag and protect my house against a flood, how many people are like, “I got to go to bed now.”
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: Like, no. I could sandbag my house all night if I had to.
My workouts are interval training. I have a great — I can have this five-page article ready for any listener. It’s on how five minutes of interval training where you alternate intensity is as good or better for you than an hour of steady-state workout. So that’s a — read about this three or four years ago, and the best books I’ve ever read on it is The One Minute Workout by Martin Gibala. I usually do my workouts in an hour, period. So 5 to 7 minutes of interval training, and then the next 50 minutes is resistance training with no break between exercises. Any break I have, I stretch but also superset and do giant sets. I can basically do legs, back, and biceps in 45 minutes. My other workout is chest, shoulders, triceps.
My post-workout meal, I don’t really worry too much about it. They said the golden hour — they’ve now said it — as long as it’s within two hours you have some kind of protein or carbs, you’re completely fine because the body is starving for food and glucose after you eat. After an intense workout, they said you’ve actually — you’re in a glucose debt for 48 hours after, and that’s why people who exercise intensely and a lot can actually eat anything we want. But if you really want to have an armored body or look like Jennifer Aniston or The Rock, the foods you eat after the workout, if it’s healthy, you will definitely have toned, solid, lean tissue looking amazing. It’s basically — it really makes you ageless.
People keep coming up to me and said, “Uch, what’s going on? You looked the same five years ago.” I said, “Well, I’m doing all these ageless strategies, and basically it just slows down the aging.” And I think with this new gut health stuff I’m doing and the strategies I’m doing, I haven’t just slowed it down. I’ve reversed age. Like, it’s lucid thinking, flat stomach, pain-free joints, energy of — like, I’m working out with some of these guys, 25, 30 in the gym, and I know they have a vague idea I’m older than them, but it’s amazing how you just transcend the need to feel twice their age. Like, I don’t — I’m in their space, I’m — I feel like two and a half decades younger than I am, and I actually look better than I did 25 years ago —
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: — because I was 210 pounds back in the ’90s. I have a picture of myself with Tony Robbins. I jumped up on stage during a volunteering one time, and it’s amazing how I’m like — I look totally sick.
Michelle Strange: Diff — yeah.
Uche Odiatu: I was gray. I was single. I had — you know, drinking vodka on Fridays.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: And that loaf of bread with peanut butter, that was my fridge.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: So way more mindful choices now. So I eat mindfully. I often choose my friendships mindfully. I sleep mindfully. I exercise mindfully. Sounds kind of boring, but it’s amazing how it makes your health more predicable.
Michelle Strange: Yeah.
Uche Odiatu: Especially if you weather a storm. You know, I’m — Kary and I were separated — my wife and I were separated a year and a half ago. Talk about a [sic] emotional storm. But if you have a reserve of physical well-being and health, it’s amazing how even though it’s stressful, you — it’s attenuated because you have ways to process energy whether it’s exercising, which processes energy, or if it’s sleeping deeply without booze before bed, whether it’s wearing a sleep mask or the orange glasses, whether it’s chamomile tea or some of the other strategies that I’ve learned over the last couple days here at AAOSH.
So that’s kind of my day. That’s, basically — it’s pretty simple. It seems — I don’t write things down. I like to believe that — Stephen Covey said when you’re really living a level — or you’re a dentist at a level — such a level or you’re an amazing mother, an amazing father, or amazing businessperson, you do things effortlessly and unconsciously. So Stephen Covey said the highest level you could live in an area — if an area of — the sweet spot is to have unconscious competence. So unconscious competence is just like effortless health. Just like Richard Branson seems like he’s a businessman effortlessly, that really takes you to a level of feeling — it’s easier. And then people want to ask you how you do it because it doesn’t look so painful, it doesn’t hurt. I really think “no pain, no gain” went out with MC Hammer [indiscernible].
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Uche Odiatu: So I got rid of all my Vanilla Ice records. And I’m just now living a 2019 and hopefully looking forward to a great 2020.
Michelle Strange: Well, thank you for that little bit of information. I’m sure everyone’s going enjoy this TIPisode. And, if you have not already listened to all the episodes that Doctor Uche Odiatu has been on, you can go to our website, actually, and search your name, and all of them will pop up. So they should definitely do that. And then also go to YouTube and watch our stretching videos.
Uche Odiatu: Yes.
Michelle Strange: Because all those videos are there so you can actually see what you were talking about like threat the needle and all that jazz.
Uche Odiatu: Yeah. It’s — we make it so fun and easy. And I know what A Tale of Two Hygienists does. It’s such a great way to get information out effortlessly and easily and teaching people that it’s approachable, easy. And the experts are like a text away or an Instagram message away, so.
Michelle Strange: Exactly. Exactly.
Uche Odiatu: Thank you.
Michelle Strange: Oh, thanks.
