162: Gifting Wellness: 9 Holiday Gift Ideas for the Health-Minded

Scot: It's that time of year when Scot, Mitch, and Troy, three not-very-wise men, come bearing gifts for better health. Guys, are you ready for this? This is getting hard because this is the third or fourth year that we've done this. Each one of us comes up with three gifts for health. I really struggled. Mitch, how'd you do?

Mitch: I had to go back and listen to the old episodes. I had to cross off half of my list because the good ideas were ones that we had already come up with. But I was able to get a couple.

Scot: Okay. Troy, was it easy for you? Everything is always easy for Troy Madsen, it seems like.

Troy: Yeah, I wish. I struggled. My original three gifts, I thought, "Well, I'm going to tell them let's do a pull-up bar, a sleeping mask, and some resistance bands." And then I thought, "I think we've said all those at one point over the past five years."

Scot: We have.

Troy: So it was a bit of a stretch, because I like to talk about gifts that I've actually tried and used.

Scot: Yeah, me too.

Troy: Because then you can give almost a testimonial to say, "Hey, this worked great for me. You should try it." But that was tough this year.

Scot: All right.

Troy: It's going to be a stretch for me this year. Yeah, it's going to be a stretch because I couldn't just flat out say, once again, "Get some resistance bands." I'm just not that innovative and I don't bring too many new things into my life. So that's where I struggled.

Scot: Yeah. That was a lesson I learned, I think. So it could be one of two things. Let's just get into this here. So this is "Who Cares About Men's Health," offering information, inspiration, and different interpretation of men's health. I am Scot Singpiel. I bring the BS. The MD to my BS is Dr. Troy Madsen. And then we also have Mitch Sears on the show. He is a "Who Cares About Men's Health" convert. And it is 9 Gift Ideas for Better Health.

The rules: Each one of us comes up with three ideas, has to be under $50. So, for me, I think the fact I had to think really hard could be good. I'm going to stand by all three of mine, even though you might think they're lame.

Troy: Well, I think the lamest gift we've ever had recommended is actually the coolest, and that was the toilet light. Some people might think that's super lame, but my toilet light is still going strong.

Mitch: At Thanksgiving people were bringing up that they got some toilet lights. It was delightful.

Troy: Nice.

Scot: That's ridiculous. It's not delightful. It's ridiculous.

Troy: It's wonderful.

Scot: All right. So, in no particular order, we're just going to go round robin here. Each one of us will do one. I'll do one, Troy will do one, Mitch will do one, and then we'll go back around two more times.

So my first one is . . . Have you ever struggled with paying attention to things or getting started, or sticking with something, or you're in the middle of doing something and it starts getting hard and you're like, "I just don't have any focus anymore. I can't do this"?

Troy: I feel like everything is that way now. So, yes.

Mitch: Yeah. What's your answer? What do you got?

Troy: Do you have a solution?

Scot: Yeah. Well, I have something that can help you find a solution. And I think this is the first time a book has been recommended on the show, isn't it?

Mitch: Why didn't I think of books? I've bought so many books.

Troy: Wow. That's right. This opens up a whole new world for us if we can just start recommending specific books. I was going to recommend just books, in general. Just give a book.

Scot: Sure.

Mitch: A book.

Troy: But you've got something specific?

Scot: I do. Actually, in my first one, I'm going to combine two different books because I feel like . . . I read them back to back, and unintentionally, they work so well back to back. It was perfect.

So the first one impacts all aspects of the Core Four no matter what you do, whether it's your activity, or your nutrition, or your sleep, or your mental health. And the book is called "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life."

So we live in a world where it feels like everything is out there to distract us from what we're trying to do. And I have struggled with focus for the past few years, and it's been really frustrating. I'm like, "Is it because I'm aging? Is it the world we live in? What is it?" So this book helped me understand why, and it gave me some steps to take. It actually has helped me and I'm getting better and I'm seeing progress.

One of the concepts in this book that really resonated with me, and there are so many great concepts in here that can resonate with you, is that we live our values through the things we pay attention to. And either we can do things that help us achieve those values, which is called gaining traction, or we can do things to prevent us from achieving those things, which is distraction. And that really resonated with me.

So this book goes into depth about what a . . . We've lived in a distractible times. We've been distractible for years, way before the computer age. It kind of goes through the history of it, and it goes through why we're distractible. And then it gives us some things that we could start doing to actually start fixing that.

So that's my first book, called "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life." Thirteen dollars for the digital copy, $16 for the paperback, and $26 for the audiobook. Although I have an Audible subscription and I bought it with one of my monthly credits. That's really expensive for an audiobook, I thought. So that's my first one.

Mitch: It's funny that this was one of the books you suggested because it's on my . . . I'm waiting for next month's Audible credit to buy this one. After I got my ADHD diagnosis last year and I've been trying to come to terms with it and figure out how my brain works, etc., I'm on a bunch of these ADHD blogs. And this book comes up all the time for people with executive dysfunction issues on top of just everybody, I guess. So it's cool.

Scot: The very next book that followed that was a book called "Atomic Habits." And this dives into how we develop habits to actually achieve the things we want to accomplish. And it uses something called the Four Laws of Behavior Change. The concept that the author puts forth is that improving 1% every day isn't even noticeable. You probably don't even know it's going on.

And with so many things we do in health and wellness, I think that's the case, right? We do these things and we expect to see progress in a week or two. We expect to see muscle gain, or weight loss, or better numbers when we go back to the doctor. But it's that 1% over the long haul that makes the huge difference. So the contention is small habits make a big difference.

And one of the analogies they used was interesting. A bamboo plant spends 80% of the first year growing roots. You wouldn't even tell that the plant is growing. And then within a few weeks, it grows in height, right?

So if you implement good habits that are driving you towards the things you want . . . Like you said, it's not always linear. You might not always see that thing happening right away. But over time, it can make a big difference, and it can appear kind of all at once in some instances.

All right. Mitch, what's your gift number one?

Mitch: Well, just piggybacking off of yours, we are going to do . . .

Scot: You always do this, it seems like.

Mitch: Yeah, I know. We are going to do a subscription to an audio service. This past year, I got myself an Audible subscription. And it's the first time I've ever done audiobooks. I always thought podcasts are one thing, but something about a book, I'm like, "I could be reading this faster. Why would I sit and listen?" I was like, "No, you're not going to read anyway." But you can listen to someone tell a story.

And one of the things that has really shocked me this year is the other two services that I've tried out are Calm and Headspace. So guided meditation audio services. And between the two of them, I do Audible when I do a little bit of strength training in the morning. I don't know why that matches up for me, but as I lift weights, I learn something new or listen to a book. It has really helped with, say, an intellectual health that I didn't realize I was lacking. This novel experience, these new ideas, these new . . .

Scot: Yes.

Mitch: Right?

Scot: New ideas, yeah. I'm with you on that.

Mitch: So that's just it. It's not like I'm thinking the same thing every day. It's just like, "Hmm, what do I think about this?" It's not always self-help. I listened to "Dune," and I'm like, "Yes, 'Dune.'" But it was still just different than doing nothing for my intellectual health.

And then the second part was with this Headspace or Calm, or there are a ton of other guided apps. They're just the ones that I use. When I find myself feeling off, I can just pull something up. A lot of times they are organized into what is stressing you out or what feelings you're experiencing, and you put in how much time you have to think about them.

Just being able to very easily click a button and say, "Hey, let's just breathe for a minute. Let's get present," and incorporating that into my daily life has been really helpful.

So both of these subscriptions . . . Audible is a little bit pricier, but you could get a three to six months for under $50, and same with Headspace or Calm. So a whole year is going to be a little bit more, but you can give them a half-year and see if they like it.

Scot: Two or three things you hit on, Mitch. One, novelty. My brain craves novelty as well and I found books do the same thing, right? Even if I don't necessarily implement everything I hear in a book, or even if I listen to a "Dune," my brain craves it. It does help. So that really resonated with me.

Audible has changed the way I consume. I used to listen to a lot of podcasts, but I feel like they're the M&M's of the intellectually stimulating space. You can get a lot of great information and ideas from podcasts, for sure. But somebody who sat down and dedicated years to writing a book, it's just going to be a lot more robust, right?

Mitch: Yeah.

Scot: So, yeah, those are two great suggestions. I love it. Troy, what's yours?

Troy: So I'm going totally different than what you guys are talking about here. I'm going to recommend foot warmers.

Mitch: Lovely.

Troy: I tried this. I love foot warmers. So you have the hand warmers. You probably use them in your gloves if you're skiing or just being outdoors, whatever. But the foot warmers are so nice. They're designed to stick to your feet, to your socks. You put it on top of your sock and then you put your sock in your shoe.

I think it's a great thing just because the cold is such a difficult thing to deal with. This morning, I went out running. It was 10 degrees. It is just so cold out. But if you've got a foot warmer on and your feet are nice and toasty, it makes all the difference in the world.

So you can get these for 40 pairs, $31 on Amazon. Nice thing just to give someone. They may have used hand warmers. I love the foot warmers just because the whole foot component of it, if your feet are cold, you're miserable. Give some foot warmers.

Scot: Awesome. All right. My number two, bear with me on this one. So around Christmas time I struggle because I have received so many Christmas presents that I didn't necessarily need, or want, or ever used. And now I'm burdened with this thing a couple years later that I'm like, "What am I going to do with this?" I don't want to burden other people with that, so I've been moving away from giving physical gifts because a lot of the time we get caught in this game of, "Oh, what am I going to give them? Oh, a cheese board. That'll be great. Mitch will love a cheese board."

Mitch: I have five.

Scot: Exactly. Right?

Mitch: From all the other people that gave me cheese boards.

Scot: So here's my suggestion. I started with my mom giving her gift cards to her favorite restaurants, which I think that's great, right?

Mitch: Oh, sure.

Scot: But I'm going to take it one step further. Instead of giving a gift card to somebody, reach out to somebody and say, "Hey, you know what? I was just thinking about you." Maybe it's an old friend, or maybe somebody you just met that you think would be cool to get to know better, or whatever. Just say, "Hey, let's go out to lunch, my treat. Let's go out bowling. You talk about you like to bowl. Let's go out bowling and just have a good time."

See if you can find somebody in your life maybe. Batting cage, baseball game. Basketball game is probably over $50, so probably can't do that. Guys like to do stuff, so maybe if lunch or coffee seems weird, maybe doing a mutually shared thing would be a good idea.

Mitch: One of the biggest hits for a Christmas gift that I did before was I did . . . For my entire family, I was like, "Hey, I've rented an escape room for a night." And we invited a couple of other friends to fill out the numbers and everything. We had never done an escape room before, etc. But man, I don't know, not having stuff, but instead being like, "Hey, let's meet up. Let's do something together."

Scot: Having experiences.

Mitch: Yes. And the gift is my mental energy. I have chosen something. I have decided, right? It's not, "What should we do?" It's like, "I have done this. Come along." And that's the way I see it.

Scot: Yeah. Cool.

Troy: I like it. Well, one of these nights, we're going to join you for one of the Kung Fu movies, Mitch. I promise.

Mitch: Oh, they're so good.

Scot: I know. We will.

Troy: You've invited us a couple times. I'm always like, "Oh, I'm sorry."

Scot: Yeah, sorry about that.

Troy: Yeah. I appreciate that.

Scot: Troy, I'm glad you brought that up. Maybe that's a lesson. Maybe you get an initial no. Maybe you get a yes, and then it gets canceled last minute. Sometimes it's hard to work that stuff into people's lives, even though they might want to do it.

Troy: It is hard. And that's a hard gift to give. You're putting yourself out there.

Scot: You are.

Troy: Gift cards are so easy to give. You can order a digital gift card and have it sent to someone. That's a hard gift. But yeah, you are putting yourself out there. But I think it's a very meaningful gift as well.

Scot: Mitch, what's your number two?

Mitch: My number two has to do with nutrition. And a thing about nutrition, looking back through our episodes, that I don't know if we've ever done . . . Have we ever done an episode about hydration?

Scot: No, I don't think so.

Troy: We should.

Mitch: We hear a lot about, "Oh, most people are dehydrated," etc. Well, this last year, the gift that we're going to be giving is a nice water bottle, one that you can carry around, one that you can put cool stickers on like I do, or whatever, right?

Scot: One that you can lose about three days after you get it.

Mitch: Yeah, sure, i that is how you go about your water bottles. But it was just . . . I don't know. I was not one to really even think about water consumption until I got on some medications that I really need to stay hydrated to feel good.

Scot: Yeah. I think I'd give a six-pack of more inexpensive water bottles.

Mitch: Sure.

Troy: No, I totally agree too. It's funny. It's almost . . .

Scot: I'm sorry, Troy. Engrave the person's name on it. Engrave their name and phone number on it.

Troy: Oh, yeah.

Scot: That solves that problem.

Troy: Or put a Tile on it. Give them a Tile with it, those Tile things you can hook to it so they can then track it down when they lose it or something.

Mitch: Yeah. I have one stuck to the bottom of mine.

Troy: You have a Tile on yours?

Mitch: I can't lose it.

Troy: Nice. Yeah, I would love getting a water bottle gift because I have a lot of them and I carry it around almost like a security blanket. I just don't like not being able to drink water. I think I drink a lot of water, but I think a nice water bottle would be a cool gift, for sure.

Scot: Troy, what's your number two?

Troy: Well, mine is kind of Mitch's in a way. Mine is a portable blender. And the reason I'm suggesting this . . . I have just totally become a believer in Thunder's recommendation that everyone drink or eat smoothies, whatever you want to call it. You've got all kinds of fruit going in there. You've got yogurt going in there, all kinds of healthy stuff.

Now, at work, I find that I would love to have a smoothie, but to make a smoothie at home and take it to work is not practical. I've done it. It just doesn't hold up well. You put it in the fridge and it just gets kind of gross.

But if you had a portable blender, something that you could take to work . . . And most places you work, you've got a fridge you have access to, or a freezer. You could keep some frozen fruit in there. But just to make a healthy snack. It doesn't even have to be lunch, but maybe a mid-afternoon snack, something like that. You pull out your portable blender, throw in some fruit, some yogurt, I just think it'd be a great thing.

So that's all along the line of healthy eating and what Thunder's recommended. Portable blender, $49 on Amazon.

Scot: Love it. Good idea. That reminded me of something too, and maybe this would work better for somebody else. One of those hand blenders, those immersion blenders. Do you know what those are?

Mitch: Oh, sure. Yeah.

Troy: Yeah.

Scot: So I inherited one when I got married to my wife. That was part of her dowry.

Troy: Her dowry.

Scot: I don't know. She just had it. It came into the marriage. And I've got my smoothie container that I would pour my smoothie into after I blended it with the lid. But the immersion blenders are great because I can throw the ingredients right in the container and then just a couple of hits with that immersion blender, I've got less to clean up because I'm not cleaning up a blender. I'm just cleaning off the immersion blender, which is super easy to clean off. And it's already then in the container I'm going to drink from.

Although I'm looking online and they're kind of expensive. I don't know if you could find something for $30 or $40. I wouldn't spend $100 for one. Yeah, there's some here on Amazon for like $25, $50. I think that's all you would need for a smoothie. So maybe that might work for somebody too.

All right. Number three. So you guys did a really good job. You said you went back . . . Mitch went back and listened to previous episodes to make sure he didn't duplicate. I duplicated, but I intentionally duplicated.

Mitch: Oh, no. Is it resistance bands?

Scot: I intentionally duplicated. What's that?

Mitch: Is it resistance bands?

Scot: No.

Troy: Is it Tonal? Remember Tonal last year?

Scot: No, it's not Tonal.

Troy: It's like $2,000 or something.

Scot: Yeah.

Troy: Or $10,000.

Scot: When we decided we would have one gift that money was no . . . What would you give?

Troy: "Money is no object this year."

Scot: And by the way, had I bought a Tonal, I'm sure it would be sitting for the past six months not being used. I'm glad. Here I am talking about walking and spending $100 on a blender and I thought I was going to buy a Tonal.

All right. So anyway, it's tea. Last year, I started talking about how I started drinking more tea, and drinking tea has been transformative for me and helping me to drink less alcohol at night. Alcohol, like beer, just kind of became a habit in the evening and something to do. I was constantly reaching and drinking, right? And I was to the point where I'm like, "I'm not even really enjoying this."

So it dawned on me, "Maybe if you had something else that you could reach for and drink, maybe that would work out." And tea fit that bill. I also got rid of coffee. I wanted to have a hot beverage in the morning. Tea fit that bill.

And like Mitch said, during the day, if you just need a quick little meditation or a little break, I'll make a cup of tea and I'll go take 20 minutes, do some deep breathing, breathe it in, feel the warmth. It's been fantastic.

But last year, I was using tea bags and I discovered that most tea bags are made out of plastic and there are all sorts of microplastics that you're getting in addition to your tea.

Mitch: Oh, no.

Scot: So that made me decide I wanted to switch to loose-leaf tea. And loose-leaf tea is great because it opens up your taste palate to things that you never knew existed.

Tea bags are very limited in the sort of offerings they have. But when you go online and find a couple of loose-leaf tea places, it's everything from regular tea to different mixes of tea that you've experienced, to herbal teas you've never heard of, to mixes of fruits and mints and all of that, and it's fantastic. So you can find two or three things that you really like.

For example, there's a Rooibos tea, which is non-caffeinated. It's a caffeine-free tea, and it tastes similar to teas that we're used to, but I think it tastes better actually.

But my pro tip is get a little steeper, which is the thing you make your tea in that lets the leaves really interact with the water. So a lot of us have seen those little tea balls. You just pack your tea into it, and then you put that in the cup. Water doesn't really interact with the tea.

And you can find these little steepers you put the loose-leaf tea in. It's got a filter in the bottom, you pour the hot water on, you wait 5, 10 minutes, whatever, and then you filter it into your cup.

So I duplicated tea because it has been very instrumental in my past year, and adding loose-leaf teas to the equation has made it even a little bit more fun. So much so that this summer, I got an iced tea maker that you can put your loose-leaf tea in, you put it in the refrigerator, and then you can have an iced tea.

Mitch: And I'd be very interested because I've cut a lot of even diet sodas and stuff out of my diet, and my numbers are coming down for my pre-diabetes. So check on that. But I'm also getting really bored of just water, or just La Croix, or whatever. And so maybe I'll check out tea.

Scot: Mitch, what is your number three?

Mitch: My number three is resistance bands. But no, pause. It's a different type of resistance band. We've talked before about just kind of strength training tools, and that was one idea I had. I had this little Gripmaster that I've been using. It's an old little thing to get your hands stronger for guitar or violin or whatever. And I've just been fidgeting with that and getting a little bit stronger.

But the bigger thing is the looser mobility resistance bands, these kind of wider ones that you can pull. Sometimes they come in a whole roll and you just cut whatever length you need. But just some mobility equipment.

As weird as it sounds, one of the biggest things this past year is I've moved . . . With my ankle injury that we're still working on, I'm seeing Chris Gee next week, etc., but I've been doing a lot of mobility, like my flexibility, my ability to move around, building up some strength on little muscles that you never really interact with, but man, oh, man, will help you when you're older.

And I have these loose resistance bands, these little foam balls that you can put in between different places and rub out knots, etc. But just getting stuff that you can just play around with through the day and practice on some mobility stuff. I don't groan every time I get up off of a La-Z-Boy chair, that "ugh." I no longer do that.

Troy: The old man groan.

Mitch: Yeah.

Troy: You stand up like, "Urgh."

Mitch: Right. It happens, but now it's starting to become less. And so it's this thing that's just like, yes, we've said resistance bands before, but let's focus on mobility tools, especially if you have anyone in your life that's even a bit older or has any sort of mobility issues.

Troy: So these aren't designed for strength so much as more range of motion.

Mitch: Yeah.

Troy: Interesting.

Mitch: They're the kinds of bands that you'd get at a physical therapist's office. But you can buy ones that are made to last longer and you can just use at home. They're reusable, and it's great.

Troy: I love it. And I'm at a point in my life I would much rather be flexible than strong. I want to be in good shape, I want to have decent muscle mass, but I don't care. I don't want to be bulk. It's not something I'm ever going to achieve. I've given up on that. But I would love to be more flexible and have great range of motion and not have those aches and pains. So I think that's a great gift, and I'm going to look into it.

Scot: Troy, what's your number three?

Troy: So my number three is kind of like yours, Scot, in the sense of giving of yourself. My gift will cost you nothing, but maybe some sanity, but it is priceless. And I'm speaking for all of the parents who may be listening. This is just offering to a parent to come over and babysit and help out.

Scot: Wow. I love it.

Troy: I'm not necessarily recommending, Scot, that you do it. I would recommend that you have some sort of dynamic with young children before you . . .

Scot: Hey.

Troy: Sorry, Scot. I'm just laughing, Mitch, because Scot met me at the zoo a couple months ago and he met my little girl and he just looks at me and says, "How are you doing?"

Mitch: No, I'm the same way. I don't know how to interact with kids. I'm like, "Hello, small adults. What can we do?"

Troy: "Hello. How are you doing today?" And then she started crying.

Scot: No, she did not.

Troy: She did start crying at one point, but anyway.

Scot: I don't think it was because of [inaudible 00:23:32].

Troy: It wasn't because of you, Scot. No.

Scot: But no, I understand what you're saying. Whatever somebody is like, "Do you want to hold my kid?" No.

Troy: You're just like, "No." Hey, two years ago, that was me. Trust me. I would interact with kids at work from a pediatrics perspective, but I'm like, "I don't want to hold people's kids."

But you can still give a lot. There's a lot you can do if you know someone, if you have a friend who's got young kids or a new baby, anything like that. It's remarkable how much time that takes up. It is absolutely remarkable. I had no idea.

Just to even offer to them, be like, "Hey, can I just come over and help you out with some cleaning or help you out with some projects around your house that you just cannot get to because you're always taking care of a young child?" Even if it's not babysitting, because I think babysitting is kind of intimidating.

But anyway, it's a simple thing you can offer if you know people who have kids. Don't ask, "Can I help?" because they're always going to say no. Say, "I have two hours in my day tomorrow. I'm going to come over. You tell me how I can help you." Something that simple.

Mitch: I like that.

Troy: And again, it's not going to cost you anything. But I think people who have young kids often don't reach out for help, but that can be a huge help for them.

Mitch: I guess the gay uncle who's not too good at kids tip that I do is I have a cousin and she's got some kids, and she lives like an hour and a half, two hours away. It's not just buzz down and help out. And so I've actually even just done some Uber Eats or Grubhub. I've been like, "Hey, it sounds like you're stressed. I've ordered you a bunch of food. It's coming to you. You don't have to think about it tonight. And I ordered enough that you'll have leftovers for tomorrow."

Troy: That's huge.

Mitch: Right? It was like, "Ugh, I can't go babysit. I don't feel comfortable doing that. But I can at least send you a little bit of food and take something off your plate." Just how much that has meant to her on those days where she's got her two kids, the younger one and a 3-year-old. It's just not having to worry about food for one day.

Troy: That's a great idea too. Yeah, just send it. And again, don't ask, "How can I help you?" because everyone is going to say no. Just do it. Just say, "Hey, Grubhub is on the way." Or just say, "I'm coming over. Put me to work." Anything like that is just super helpful for people.

Scot: I think a lot of times we forget giving of yourself and how powerful that can be. It makes us feel good. It helps the other person. I think a lot of social and mental health benefits to something like that. So I love it.

Well, some might say that we've done this so many years that we were digging the bottom of the barrel. Others might say that cream doesn't rise to the top. It actually sits at the bottom of the barrel. No, that's not how that works.

Troy: I don't know where that's going.

Mitch: It's like a really good cheese down there.

Troy: That's right. A nice moldy cheese.

Scot: We had some good ideas. Good. I like that. Any final thoughts before we sign off?

Troy: I like that that theme kind of . . . there was a lot of that where we moved away from so much giving stuff to maybe giving of ourselves. And then both of you talked about also giving the gift of knowledge with audiobooks and reading.

So there's so much value in that rather than just necessarily giving stuff. Giving more of yourself or giving experiences makes a big difference, and I think people appreciate it.

Mitch: That's kind of what I was thinking, too, listening back to some of the earlier lists and stuff, how different it is. I don't want to give a bunch of stuff. We've already done the declutter challenge and everything. I would hate to burden people with more stuff that maybe they're not going to use, especially with their health. But there are a lot of things that you can do.

Scot: All right. Well, our challenge to you, the listener, is to try one of these suggestions and let us know how it works. If you have something you'd like to add, or maybe you've actually even done one of these, tell us how that went. We would love to hear from you. You can email hello@thescoperadio.com.

Good list, guys. Thank you very much again for coming up with 9 Gift Ideas for Better Health from the "Who Cares About Men's Health" guys on "Who Cares About Men's Health."