William Shewfelt: Carnivore Diet Insights and Experience, Prioritizing Your Day, And Finding Your Behavior Anchors

William enjoys the extreme honor of being on the show for a third time, a great opportunity to check back in and get refocused because this dude is super focused and superconscious.

Our conversation kicks off with some great commentary from William about the importance of developing an “anchor” for a productive day, which in his case is waking up at 4:30am and getting to the gym. We did a whole Breather show about that deal, and I ponder the fine line between taking care of yourself and not overstressing, but also getting focused, disciplined, and getting shit done. Could me not wanting to awaken at 4:30am be a self-limiting belief that I manifest by being too tired to wake up at 4:30am? Could I manifest a more productive day from my wussy boy fragile ex-athlete mindset by waking up at 6:00am and kicking some butt, instead of waiting for that perfectly graceful awakening at 6:45-7:15am usually?

After all, when I loosened my dietary guidelines in the experimental phase of eating more overall calories, including starting my day with a big green super nutrition smoothie instead of fasting, I admit that this became a slippery slope of indulgence and diminishing discipline. On the flip side, I share the benefits of my morning cold plunge and recent experiment of fasting until 12 noon every day being mainly to ingrain pro-active patterns and self-discipline. William definitely knows first-hand how essential discipline is, and as we discuss what it is that makes Tiger Woods such an exceptional athlete, William makes the astute observation that, “He has a mental edge that so many of the other guys don’t have.” Yes, being physically committed to your fitness is important, but if you don’t have discipline, how can you expect to get anything done? How can you expect to push yourself beyond what you think your limits are? William points out that, “Adhering to your goals comes down to understanding what your priorities are, and that comes from a certain awareness: What are your health circumstances, what are your goals, what’s important to you?” 

He then shares the inspiring mindset he applied to his acting career, which he says anyone can apply to basically any circumstance in life. Once William got the “burning desire” to act, he focused on the vision he had of himself booking a starring role in a TV show to work towards. He broke it down extremely practically: he knew he needed an agent, credits on a resume, acting skills, but also to clear up his skin, since he had severe acne at the time. But he knew all of these steps, no matter how big or small, were crucial moves he had to make in order to achieve his goals. His priorities shifted, and he committed big time to pursuing his dreams, showing up to every audition he could, and creating a great daily routine in the process. What’s interesting is that William discovered during this extremely hectic time in his life that, “Putting my health and fitness at the forefront is the only thing that allowed me to work so hard my last year of college without having burnout or health issues.” He was dealing with an enormous workload while pursuing a career in an industry that is infamously difficult to break into, but his commitment to his fitness allowed him to balance his priorities as he steadily made moves in the right direction. 

Yes, it’s turned out pretty well for William so far, and because of his success and positive perspective, he often gets asked for advice on his Instagram about what people can do to start making seriously affective changes in their life. A lot of the time people want all the answers and they want to start implementing every change they need to make in one day. But William’s outlook is much more realistic and relaxed: just change one thing - like starting to do as many pushups as you can in the morning, right after waking, for 1 month - and then get back to him. William believes starting people off with one specific fitness ritual is really where massive change can occur, because once people start being mindful about their fitness routine, then that bleeds over to their diet, which carries over to all areas of their consciousness. Once you start eating better and feeling better, you find that you have more energy, and then you realize you’re literally happier, and actually motivated to set goals and go after whatever it is that you want out of life. For William, the goal is to wake up excited about whatever it is you can accomplish that day, and not to feel like there’s this mountain of responsibility and doom looming over you, and the best way to do that is through discipline and self-awareness. This show will help you leverage your best intentions for diet, fitness, and lifestyle goals, and follow William’s policy of “take action, then ponder things later!”

 

TIMESTAMPS:

Brad and William discuss outstanding sports performances. [05:01]

Putting yourself in pressure situations teaches you a lot. [10:26]

It depends on self-awareness of who you are that determines what your priorities are. [13:15]

Putting health and fitness to the forefront is the thing that allowed him to work so hard. [16:36]

You have to commit to something. [20:42]

William’s wake up time is 4:30 a.m.  Doesn’t recommend it for everyone. [22:41]

When you compromise, it leads to more compromise. [25:42]

Instill the habit of ACTION. [32:55]

William describes his transition from vegan to carnivore diets. [33:57]

If you want to try carnivore, it’s important to check off some boxes. [39:19]

If you have a compromised immune system, consuming those plant anti-nutrients can be a problem. [40:46]

Is broccoli the miracle food? [44:15]

There are many ways to supplement for calcium like eggshells or bone supplements. [47:48]

Everything is up-regulated when we are fasting. [49:22]

What is someone doing carnivore actually eating? [52:21]

Brad wonders about the long term effects. [57:17]

There’s a lot less to think about if you commit to this diet. [01:01:48]

Food is an experience. [01:04:27]

To do it right, a “cheat day”, is a social experience. [01:07:41]

What is carnivore shredding? [01:09:42]

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