#66 - Frequent Flyer Health Hacks from Special Forces Coach Alex Racey

[00:00:00] Welcome back to Passive Income Pilots, everyone. Tait Duryea here with Ryan Gibson on another beautiful day. How are you my friend? I'm doing great. Although I just I saw one of our one-star reviews on the show and I want to

[00:00:13] We got our first legitimate one-star review, I love it. I love this because yeah We've had I don't know 85 plus people raving about the show. Thank you everyone who has left a review If you haven't left review, please consider leaving us one. It helps us reach more people

[00:00:28] It inspires us I get motivated and then I want to bring on more guests Ryan and I are both busy people here We this is it takes a lot of time and effort to put this show together

[00:00:38] So when we see those nice reviews, it really does make it all worth it. So thank you Thank you. Thank you to all you listeners I think it is as it we do want to talk about that one-star review though for just a minute

[00:00:49] First of all, it was an Airbus pilot. No, no surprise there pilots give them a bag of money And they'll complain about how heavy it is. That's the But no, I the complaint we do take the complaint to heart and I've said Hey

[00:01:01] I thought the show is talking about passive income and these guys are talking about the economy Talking about the economy is part of the whole thing, right? You got it

[00:01:07] you got to know the whole environment that you're operating in to understand where to fit in and where passive income might make sense but you know the other part of passive income is Getting better at health and wellness and making sure that you can actually enjoy

[00:01:21] your life past age 65 and you don't just completely Crater in health and wellness as soon as you get out of this career that you work so hard for and you've saved and you've retired

[00:01:31] And so we're putting that spin on the show today. So yes, we're not talking about financial performance today We're talking about mental health and physical performance and how to get the most out of your life That's what this is all about at the end of the day, right?

[00:01:43] Financial freedom passive income It's all about just being a better person like having a better life with more freedom to do the things that you want to Do guess what I don't have your health. Yeah If you don't have your health then yeah, what's the point?

[00:01:54] Let's just all go to 65 and then die the next day that who wants to do that. So we're bringing on actually One of the top guys that I know special forces guy served in the army complete

[00:02:06] Awesome bad-ass guy that knows a lot about health and wellness and mental health and helps people Actually one-on-one coaching just a really great guy Alex Racy Tate. You want to give us a little bit more background about who Alex is Yeah, he's got a 25 year military career

[00:02:21] He was an army ranger deployed to combat 13 times in various operational roles and after retiring from military Alex transition to the private sector he talks about this being the global director of security for a fortune 500 company and

[00:02:36] Since 2018 he's been fully dedicated to personal performance coaching helping clients maximize physical mental Spiritual social well-being so the whole round robin instead of just being a fitness coach or a nutritionist Really tying the whole package together to help meet people live more fulfilled lives

[00:02:54] So he's also got a son that's going through pilot training right now He got his private got his instrument And so Alex would love to have a conversation with an airline fellow airline pilot help with any wisdom

[00:03:06] He could get for career advice Alex is a great guy to connect with and he can help you and really good You got to know absolutely and when Ryan and I were we're starting this show

[00:03:13] This was always the intent was to have a financially focused show with industry and Personal issues woven in because this is a show for pilots and all of the issues that face So without further ado, let's get to the show

[00:03:31] Welcome to passive income pilots where pilots upgrade their money This is the definitive source for personal finance and investment tactics for aviators We interview world-renowned experts and share these lessons with the flying community So if you're ready for practical knowledge and insights

[00:03:49] Let's roll Alex. Thank you so much for joining us appreciate you coming on. Yeah, you bet It's a pleasure to be here. I appreciate the opportunity Yeah So I've actually had the chance to personally work with Alex as a kind of performance and fitness coach for the last

[00:04:03] What five years or so four years and it's been a lots of fun And I've learned a ton about just little tips that you can do to really out live All right, I think the book that we kind of got inspired by

[00:04:14] Recently and we sent that book out to all of our investors this past year But Alex, why don't you just give a little bit of background of who you are your military Background and experience. Thank you for your service by the way and what you're doing today

[00:04:25] Yeah, right on hey again. Thanks for Frank. Thanks for inviting me on my name is Alex Tracy I'm 53 I spent 25 years and the US Army as enlisted swine. I'm guessing most of your military Audience are officers and I helped a lot of officers

[00:04:40] Keep from getting fired over those 25 years as they're as their senior in CO Most of my time was spent in the special operations area I spent about a little over 17 years at the special mission unit for brag came in 91

[00:04:54] So it was a peacetime army where you're just like trying to train and find all the things to do better and better And then lo and behold we actually had a war start and I spent 10 years going back and forth with that finished up my time as

[00:05:07] In more of an office job I was the director for our performance program at the unit of us at Fort Bragg That really got me to the next level on kind of what I do now with regard to focusing on

[00:05:20] Physical mental and emotional health and what I do for my clients, but the military stuff was super Super interesting. I was in from 1991 to 2016 It was a lot of back-and-forth overseas and then the bump I retired and joined

[00:05:36] The civilian sector as a director of security at a fortune 500 company and that's kind of me and that was really where I Was like oh, so this is

[00:05:47] I'm around all these really high functioning people and I'm realizing that they totally never learned how to take care of themselves from a physical standpoint mostly that's like hey just never had the education of

[00:05:59] When you are an adult with lots of stress and lots of requirements and lots of sitting around You need to take care of yourself a certain way and prioritize certain things when you're not tied to that desk or for your audience again

[00:06:12] That tied to that seat in the cockpit and I built my coaching program first principles performance around that The only other thing I'll add is I'm an aviation dad I've got a son who's getting his instrument rating right now and

[00:06:26] Is going to my Tristate University here in Denver on a professional pilot track, so I'm tied in that way With aviators, and I'm actually concerned about his future career where he will be potentially Sitting behind a joystick for hours on end and then having this really crazy schedule

[00:06:47] Half of the month and then the other half of the month being in this Completely different environment, so these are all things that are super interesting to me But myself. I'm not a pilot I joke that I have more time in helicopters flying around than most Apache pilots

[00:07:02] Because I've lived on helicopters for many years of my military career Yeah, and you were an army ranger and didn't you uh you crash in a helicopter at one point?

[00:07:13] I was I had just fast roped out of a helicopter that crashed right behind me. So a chunk of the rotor blade knocked me out for a few seconds and That was in training in 1999. It actually killed my buddy who was on the rope

[00:07:28] Just above me when we were Coming out of the helicopter it landed on him unfortunately, but yeah Yeah, I've been I've I've been under chunks of flying rotor blades three times in my military career

[00:07:40] And I only got hit once so I feel pretty good about that pretty lucky. Wow. Alex, you know what one thing that I that you said that really Makes me think about what we do as pilots is the long hours of sitting

[00:07:53] and not being able to move around and I think I even talked to a pilot once who was like a really Avid runner and when she went to the doctor is like what do you do for your career?

[00:08:04] That makes you so inflexible and like stiff in your muscles for the amount of running that you do And then when she mentioned that she was a pilot he was like, oh that makes sense I'd love to just get into we sit for long periods of time

[00:08:16] And this podcast is all about passive income But it also like you got to take care of yourself if you want to enjoy this passive income So what what tips would you give someone who's just going to be in this prolonged

[00:08:27] Sitting position in a crammed cockpit for many hours. What would be your kind of best advice for that? My best advice for that would be prior to getting in that position anytime during those long flights

[00:08:39] And it's especially right after being able to get out of that seat for post flight would be to prioritize movement and Kind of a rehab. We just finished a flight rehab session after you're free and clear of that cockpit That could look like a lot of things but

[00:08:59] Full range of motion Movement holds just an air squat. I haven't I don't fly much on on wide body aircraft But I would imagine the cockpits aren't big enough to really move around too much in even in those seven

[00:09:14] I see in a lot of 737s when I'm getting on and off airplanes and there's no room at those but um Seven three is pretty small. Yeah, if there's any ability to stretch A little bit of room on the three part of your body Yeah

[00:09:27] during flight even if you could Even if it's just simply retracting your shoulders back opposite of that always Leaning forward kind of posture that That pilots have while they're flying but also everybody driving a desk with their hands on a computer Are in this similar position

[00:09:48] So that opposite position even if you can do that occasionally during The flight yet it's not going to help you necessarily lower body, but it will help you upper body But things like air squats holding that bottom position and and learning how to do a good air squat

[00:10:03] That's going to help those hamstrings and that lower back immediately get back into a more lengthened posture Or just it's just going to make them remember that. Hey, we're not just we're not just always going to be stuck in these

[00:10:17] Certain positions the length of your hamstring is completely contained when you're in a seat And your lower back and your hamstrings start adjusting to that position pretty quickly So you want to you just want to reverse those types of things

[00:10:30] I've got lots of issues from my time in the military and just like the life I've chosen to live I do what I call I do a little five minute yoga routine every morning. I get up Whether i'm in a hotel whether i'm at home

[00:10:44] Whether i'm in a tent with my kids at an air show or whatever I'm doing my I call it coffee spruing yoga because I do it once I start my first cup of coffee brewing

[00:10:54] By the time the coffee is done. I'm ready for it and I've gotten everything That's close to aligned or in alignment as possible for the day So lots of just it's funny a lot of what I teach

[00:11:06] Is very basic stuff and it's all in some cases like this for example It's as easy to do as it is easy to not do And it's not earth shattering So it's like that you all talk about investments and

[00:11:22] And a little bit of a return that is building up over over a long time Is a good a good investment or a lot of return building up over a long time It's the same thing with personal performance If you're eating a little bit better

[00:11:36] And you're sleeping a little bit better and you're focused on movement a little bit better And that's very specific to your professional career what that might look like You're going to put some health bucks in the bank for later on

[00:11:49] Yeah, no, that's really and you touched on something like eating better I love that. I want to pull in that thread because We only have limited time in an airport to eat right flight comes in 35 One hour turn and of course what's in the airport? That's our option

[00:12:06] And we're on a four or five day trip maybe even a 12 day trip if we're an international pilot So bringing food and grocery shopping and having a lunch bag is it's not the most convenient thing

[00:12:16] I I did it for a period of time and you get you lose interest in Packing all your stuff and it's hard to keep up with and keep fresh and taste good And want to actually eat it right after a few days of it being in your bag

[00:12:27] What what kind of advice would you have on? Knowing that we don't have a lot of time to eat We don't have a lot of time to pick out food and how would you set up a plan for a pilot?

[00:12:35] Honestly, I would do it just like I would for any other profession Specific to what we're talking about one thing that I think about which may or not be true because I don't have experience

[00:12:45] But like I imagine let's talk about your friend. That's the runner. She's training for marathons And most of that's probably happening when she's not on a five day flight profile So right her energy requirements and how she fuels or eats and drinks

[00:13:02] Probably looks totally different when she's home training for a marathon Compared to what her energy needs are when she's flying for five days Now, of course if she's got over long over Wait periods where she's on a treadmill for hours at a time in between these flight legs

[00:13:19] That's that requires a certain type of fueling as well But one thing with pilots that I think about is Depending on how active you are when you're not flying you would just change your energy components of your eat plan

[00:13:32] When you were flying ie the things that that give you energy and create extra body weight in the form of fat Which are your which are the fat the three components that that that are gonna

[00:13:43] Cause you to get fatter than most people want to be our carbohydrates fats And alcohol right so you would want to you would want to Potentially have a hey This is how I eat when I'm home and I'm training for marathons or I'm working on my farm

[00:13:56] And this is how I eat When I'm not doing much from a physical activity standpoint, but I'm flying and so that would look like knowing your protein baseline And how much protein you need and we just had a study come out that people

[00:14:11] Like people who train hard actually Utilize more protein from a synthesis standpoint. In other words, they convert more protein into Muscle and other tissues on their rest day Then they do on their hard workdays or their light work days

[00:14:27] I just thought that so I don't want to talk. I don't want to pound a steak in the ground on that one But it's an interesting thing. So one always know your protein baseline and maintain it daily and then two

[00:14:39] Change your energy change the energy for the the day you're having. Hey, I'm in a I'm gonna be in a cockpit all day That means I don't mean When you're out of trip, I don't need a fettuccine necessarily That day and then when you're in the airport

[00:14:54] I would look for the restaurants that You can grab the salad to go and honestly I would I just go double meat. Hey, give me the cob salad with chicken Double meat I was just gonna ask you every pilot goes to the irish pub on every layover, right?

[00:15:11] That's what we do as pilots. We find the closest irish bar. So what am I going to order there? What's the dinner that I order at the irish pub? Man, that's a tough one when you're out and about and you're going to a restaurant the same basics

[00:15:22] You just apply them if I'm going to the irish pub that obviously means I'm having a Guinness And so maybe I just have a steak And a pint and call it a day right there

[00:15:33] And I want to get I want to get this is backwards and no one's gonna do it But you'd want to eat this most of the steak before you start Down in the pint because it'll slow down that

[00:15:43] That carb and alcohol train that hits your liver and causes all the issues Yeah, but honestly That goes against my policy of not lighting in to eat on an empty stomach. That's always the joke that I say

[00:15:56] Yeah, I don't like to eat on an empty stomach. I gotta have a beer first Spani, I used to uh I mean and this caused some issues I Before I started paying attention to when I eat as in how many hours a day am I consuming calories?

[00:16:08] I was I was the guy who started the food clock at 5 a.m. With a big cup of coffee tons of cream and sugar And before I went to bed, I'd have a bowl of cereal at 9 30 at night

[00:16:20] Because hey who wants to wake up in the middle of the night hungry even though that That probably hasn't happened to me since ranger school, which was in 1993. Yeah, it's an interesting It's an interesting thing to eat on an empty stomach

[00:16:31] So I like what you said about five minutes You said even if it's just for five minutes I've started every morning I get up and I do a little bit of a yoga and stretching routine because if I don't I feel like

[00:16:41] Garbage for the rest of the day and then I usually work out in the afternoon We get to a layover spot and it's always it's always the same thing right? It's hey, we're gonna go out with the crew meet downstairs in 20 minutes

[00:16:51] How useful what big of a difference is it between doing nothing when you get in You're like I got to get down in 20 minutes. I'm changing And taking 25 minutes and going through a quick little stretch routine

[00:17:02] How big of an impact does that make over five 10 20 years? It's cumulative. It's huge I tell people I work with when not I work with some orions folks and they're young and they're like hey If I can't get after it for 45 minutes to 60 minutes in the gym

[00:17:19] It's I'm not going to do anything when I and I used to be that way too And now at 53. I'm like if I can park at the far end of the Home Depot parking lot

[00:17:28] I'm going to get out and get long and you can't walk too much as a human being And in my opinion, I think it all counts Two flights of stairs when you can grab them good stuff an extra five minutes of stretching

[00:17:42] Cumulative over it's like the math right? Hey, let's do the math on I didn't do any push-ups last year To the math on I did 10 push-ups a day Yeah, you know even is it like it's so easy. You wouldn't even

[00:17:58] Think about 10 push-ups. That's ridiculous. Of course. I can do 10 push-ups a day or most people would say that Yeah, it's 36,500 push-ups at the end of the year for sure. Yeah It's cumulative like that. Let's switch gears to mental because that's something that pilots for some people

[00:18:15] it's a more of a stressful job than others, but there's a lot of stressors that are external to Actually the the task at hand flying the airplane There's stressors of being away from home and away from family and

[00:18:27] Staying in cheap crappy hotels sometimes and not having access to great food and all those things are cumulatively stressful What do you recommend for the mental health? It's gonna it's going to sound familiar two things one

[00:18:38] I don't think you you can work too hard on getting good sleep. And so that would be another place as a pilot I would have a locked down sleep system That involved if if you're good with

[00:18:51] With a with an eye mask where you're not getting any light and you can do that easy or I carry tape with me And I tape over lights and I clip Curtains together and I throw up pillows at the bottom of the door to block light and sound

[00:19:05] I do my best to get the best sleep I can again, whether I'm in a hotel whether I'm at home Whether I'm in a tent with my boys. I think that's huge and From a stress standpoint and a mental health standpoint

[00:19:18] It it can't be overstated how important it is the other thing though is I listened to your episode with with the pilot lawyer And there was some talk about how pilots Medicaid with alcohol because they don't have to tell anybody about that and I'm 25 years in the military

[00:19:33] I know that world very well that everything's better with a couple beers on it kind of mentality and The reality is There's a lot of report. There's a lot of science out there now that take us what working out is as good for you

[00:19:49] from a mental standpoint as In fact better than most ssri's You're a pilot. You have to report all these things about the medications you take. Hey, what about just prioritizing Your workout. I was fortunate in that in the military. I had a job where

[00:20:07] We had to maintain a very high standard from a performance standpoint. That's a physical Fitness standpoint now that I'm out and I'm just 53 year old dad most of my work is over the phone or or a zoom call and If I don't work out I

[00:20:25] I'm not in I'm not nearly the quality human being That I am when I'm working out regularly and I have a varied routine. I do strength work I run all the stuff that you read about in

[00:20:37] Outlives and that's since that's a book you both know it's zone two zone five strength work stability strength mobility All of it matters and it's all It's so basic and everybody's yeah, I know that but then they don't do it. So they don't actually

[00:20:52] Understand how huge it is. It's a game changer And then they run into that hey, I'm 65 and I thought I was gonna be doing all this cool stuff with all this money that Tate and Ryan helped me accumulate over the last

[00:21:05] Two decades and I feel like a bag of guts and I can't do anything and that's where I'm just like, hey, don't There's a there's something awesome about wealth freedom. There's something Even more awesome about health and wellness freedom for sure. Absolutely

[00:21:20] Until your first hand I went to to do the acceptance flight on an aircraft in Hamburg, Germany And I was just I just got smacked with the worst jet lag and I spent two three days in the hotel room just

[00:21:32] In this half depression and when I finally drug myself out, I made myself go to the gym It just completely changed everything and the endorphins came out and it was awesome Not speaking to anything that anybody listening to this show doesn't already know

[00:21:45] But I'll bring up one other thing because you said it there's such a powerful component to it This guy adrian williams on peloton if you're if you don't have the peloton app, it's awesome Everybody thinks peloton is just the bike. I've ridden the bike maybe not twice

[00:22:00] But these workouts are unbelievable peloton app has all these strengths workouts And I work out a lot with this guy adrian williams and he goes and he's ripped and he goes I don't want I eat anything I want he goes I eat well

[00:22:12] But I eat anything I want because I work so hard. It doesn't matter And I just love that if you're working so hard It's like your body's gonna burn it and of course he looks at the camera. He goes, you know what you're doing

[00:22:24] You know what you're doing So when you're ordering that that food at the airport, you know what you're doing whether that's healthy or not So just follow those guidelines and if you work hard enough, it doesn't matter

[00:22:34] And that's something that i've been living by for a while. I love it Yeah, and if you don't know the book outlive by peter attia I'm gonna do something different on the show this book is amazing It's really helped shape how I think about

[00:22:46] Preventing the four horsemen right the the different diseases that we all Potentially could get as and eventually kill us and it's way to live life longer better Right when we get into our 70s and 80s

[00:22:58] We can get these diseases that basically ruin the last glory years of our lives Or we can go really long and live into our 90s and have a very fruitful life

[00:23:05] And the book really talks about that and i'm going to throw this out there. We've never done this It's a total uh Audible that i'm calling here tate, but anybody who emails us at ask at passiveincomepilots.com and ask us a question

[00:23:17] I'll send you i'll mail you a copy of the book outlive So there you go if you're listening we'll give you a free copy of the book alex I want to i want to change gears a little bit You are a

[00:23:31] Performance coach is that your official title? Yeah in the coaching world you can make your title up It can be whatever you want. I was sick at getting asked about whether that was youth soccer or what when I said performance coach

[00:23:42] Now I call myself a personal performance coach Personal performance coach okay cool Get their stuff straight Around eating better sleeping better moving better and thinking better. We love it I wanted to dig into that a little bit

[00:23:55] So you said that your day-to-day you're on zoom calls. You're on phone calls You're basically working remote with people all over the world and you're helping people live better by mental health Exercise good habits

[00:24:07] Talk to us about like your typical client that you help out a lot of listeners of the show are Airline pilots earning three to six hundred thousand dollars a year

[00:24:15] Busy lives things like that they I personally benefited from your coaching talk to us about what you're what your day-to-day is Like and who your typical client is man I have everything from 32 year old founders of tech companies to all the way out to 75 year old

[00:24:32] Movie makers so guys who are deep in the trenches every day with international staff issues and All the things that come along with being in the tech space all the way out to a guy a guy who's been making movies

[00:24:46] for decades and Lee wakes up at 4 30 and writes for An hour and a half to two hours after doing some stretching and then he works and then he has this like amazing routine

[00:24:59] And it's funny my I'll tell you right now that two guys i'm talking about this 75 year old can Probably do more pull-ups than the 32 year old But he's been doing a lot of good stuff for a lot of years and we're focused on just re acquiring athleticism

[00:25:14] For that younger client so It's all the it's all the things you can imagine and to use a little bit The vernacular I hear From your show is I like to I like all the

[00:25:27] Pillars to be vertically integrated why just have a strength coach that you see at the gym Or or a nutritionist how about you have somebody that's literally has oversight on all of it? Hey, let me let's not just work on

[00:25:40] Biceps let's talk how you're eating. Let's talk how you're sleeping the one that everybody likes to just Gloss over sleep is huge and then in addition that yeah, we're going to talk a lot about movement And we're going to bring in whatever professionals we need to

[00:25:55] To make you the best you can be in that space. I've got clients who i'm their Performance coach, but they also have a strength coach that they work with three days a week in their local

[00:26:06] Town or whatever and then the think piece thinking better is something we all need to do and And that's hard to say this is the you do ab and c And problem solve but I do have some start points that I like to focus on with how people

[00:26:22] Think day in and day out as well. I think what are those when I think about pilots and and that value add to somebody making three to 600k a year, let's say if I

[00:26:34] You could do the let's say you do 20 improvement math on those numbers if I can make you perform overall better at 20 percent That's which is a work like throwing numbers to Really very subjective and objective things

[00:26:50] Man, that's what would that be worth if you take 20 percent of that revenue And apply that to a coaching relationship and then not only hey, what if I don't even A personal performance coach doesn't just help you Feel better day in day out, but along the way

[00:27:09] Oh, maybe you get five or ten extra quality years on your life That's a how do you that's so hard when to put numbers around But I have multiple coaches that I use for different things that I am involved in

[00:27:23] And I'm just in the military. We always had the subject matter experts coming in to train us to do whatever we wanted to do really well whether that was Driving really fast only surfaces or flying canopies flying parachutes very accurately or

[00:27:42] Shooting pistols really fast and really accurately. We brought in all the experts for those spaces I think just in general that's a good concept for any professional Especially for the people who it doesn't come naturally. I have clients who are like they've never

[00:27:59] They just don't have the education. They don't have a clue as to what macros are with regard to what's on their plate or They were the kid who just never

[00:28:09] Gravitated towards sports or the gym and they're like, hey, it didn't matter when I was 25, but now that I'm 40 It matters. It matters big time. I mean, I was a college athlete working out twice a day

[00:28:23] But never learned how to eat and that was crash and burn as soon as I got to the airlines when now you can There's all kinds of junk to eat and you're not working out as much So that's huge. One tip that you gave me recently was just

[00:28:36] Right after you eat your lunch, just go for a walk or and I now I have the walking treadmill in the office And I after I eat I try to put a mile or two on that and it's amazing how much better you feel

[00:28:47] To let your body digest that food with some exercise. That's pretty cool I want to talk on one thing which is sleep. What's your best advice for Someone who is flying international. They're on a different time zone. They're on a different

[00:29:01] Body clock they're flipping back and forth between working and staying at home What's like a sleep routine that you would recommend for someone like that? That is a really tough one And if it's not

[00:29:11] If it doesn't come naturally to people to to manage good sleep in that environment I would say a couple things we you just mentioned one And tate was talking about hey be down in the lobby

[00:29:21] We're going to get some chow on 20 minutes whenever you get back to that hotel I would say Even if you can just get on the treadmill for 20 minutes not run literally just

[00:29:32] Just stroll just 20 minutes of walking is going to reset a lot of systems in your body and that's that's muscles That's Digestion just all your systems are going to improve With something that simple and that's a travel technique that I think tim ferris

[00:29:49] Throughout I don't know if it was the four hour body or what that's that's super old science and very useful So here's a tip pick a restaurant. That's a 20 minute walk away

[00:29:59] And even if you got an uber there with the crew you tell them all right, I'm gonna walk back We'll see at the hotel. Yeah, there you go. Maybe not in Mexico City, but most places that would probably be Check your local security protocol

[00:30:13] Exactly we cannot be held responsible for a doctor's or security specialist for wherever you are That I would yeah, exactly. We're just just I would say that's a good one I would say A couple things

[00:30:25] I see with my clients because I track their sleep with an oar rings. I have a dashboard I see all their stuff so my clients that drink once in a while I can see

[00:30:35] Sometimes for certain people I can be like and all the alcohol got out of their system at 3 a.m Because their heart rate dropped their hrv went up And they they settled into what looks like normal sleep after that so alcohol

[00:30:48] Although it may help you fall asleep and you're like, oh I sleep better with alcohol. It's not good sleep I don't know the status of you all using medications that help sleep but my experience with those in the military watching my friends who became

[00:31:08] Very used to using things like ambient that never ended well for anyone and honestly if you listen to Matthew Walker or any of the sleep experts that are out there They will tell you that

[00:31:20] If you need to use a medication to get your sleep back on track once in a while for a couple two three days That's one thing But chronic use of those things is not sleep that when you're taking medications for sleep like ambient

[00:31:34] And I have nothing particular. It's just the one that comes to mind. So all of them That's not sleep. That's more like you're getting knocked out your body is not actually Sleeping but some of the supplements would be useful to explore as a way to get to sleep

[00:31:50] What about um magnesium? I've found that magnesium recently has been a nice alternative to melatonin and I don't take it very often But um from having trouble sleeping I'll take some magnesium and it it knocks me out But um, some people have some people experience that with magnesium

[00:32:09] I personally use theanine A super low dose of theanine which is for people who like the energy drinks back when they started and you drink a couple energy Drinks and you'd literally be shaking They realize if they put theanine in there, which is like a nerving

[00:32:25] It's a calming supplement for it calms your nervous system So it takes that shake out of you and they put it in energy drinks But it also is just this nice thing that kind of helps your body relax into sleep. So I take a low dose of that

[00:32:39] The melatonin is you hear a lot of people there's you know, you want to be very careful with melatonin but A lot of people take it literally every night And it and so I wouldn't I would look more towards the supplements like ashwagandha Theanine and melatonin

[00:32:59] As actual supplements to sleep and if you find a magnesium supplement that really works for you and like anything you notice Hey, when I take this I have some crazy dreams, but I get good sleep While i'm dreaming crazy. That's what I would be looking for

[00:33:13] But also like from a like a physical standpoint. Hey, how do I manage this the environment? On these inter international flights am I making sure that The environment like it's cool. Most people like a cool room to sleep in most people like a dark room to sleep in

[00:33:29] Like a constant noise or no noise situation. So that's where I'd be pulling out all the stops to make sure I can make every environment. I never thought about putting a clip in my bag

[00:33:39] Everybody uses the clips for the a cars paper, right? But nobody's I've never heard of using them for the hotel curtains I got what's your hack ryan? I got a hack. I can't wait to shoot it. It's like my only one It's the only one I got

[00:33:50] Okay, so go into the closet and you grab the hanger and the hanger's got two clips to hold your that's right Yeah So then you take that you clip that to the curtains and then you fold it over and clip it to the other side with the hanger

[00:34:03] That was my there you go. I like that. I'm out of tricks now I think there's some Patrick some of those ac units they don't in hotels they rig them so you can't

[00:34:14] Go below a certain temperature, but there's some youtube videos out there that you can find where it helps you like Hack the programmable thermostat in the hotel so you can get it down below 65 or whatever. But anyway, that's all I have I'm all out of tricks so

[00:34:30] Alex thank you so much for coming on sharing your wisdom if people want to get in touch with you and find out more about you How do they go about that? You can check me out on linkedin. That's where I'm most active

[00:34:40] I use my my company name there and my personal name. There's probably a few Alex Tracy's Most likely the only personal performance coach, but I also have first principles performance coaching

[00:34:51] On linkedin honestly though they could just email me. I'm a one-man band at this point in my life So it's al ex at fpp.llc Few things since we've been talking that I can think of I mentioned protein baseline

[00:35:06] Some people might be going like what the heck is that I've got a worksheet I'd be happy to send anybody who wants to just reach out and say hey I'm a pilot What helped me with coffee's brewing yoga. I'll send them a worksheet with some video links

[00:35:21] Protein baseline. I've got a worksheet I can send so yeah, I'd love to uh I'd love to keep this conversation going with some of some of your folks because I've got a 19 year old

[00:35:31] Who's gonna be in that space here very soon? So I really appreciate this opportunity. Yeah, there's a newsletter I just signed up for it. It's free check it out. We'll link to that in the show notes. Alex. Thank you so much for coming on

[00:35:44] Thanks, Alex. Good to see you guys