Living A Full Life

Comfort Is Making Us Sick

• Full Life Chiropractic • Season 4 • Episode 12

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Comfort is everywhere, but the bill it sends to your body is brutal. We open with a hard truth: your body probably isn’t broken—your lifestyle is. From chronic pain and fatigue to anxiety and weight gain, most modern health problems are built, brick by brick, by daily choices that trade effort for ease. So we get practical, cut the fluff, and lay down five non‑negotiables that tip the balance toward strength, energy, and clarity.

First, we unpack the food flip. After decades of grain‑heavy guidance, protein, vegetables, and fruit deserve center stage, while refined carbs and ultra‑processed foods move to the margins. That means looking past wraps, buns, and bowls stacked with starch and finding real portions of meat, fish, eggs, and colorful produce. We also clear the air on processed meats and why “real food” is the simplest compass for steady energy and fewer cravings.

Then we tackle the “no time” myth with numbers that sting: hours sitting, hours scrolling, hours streaming. When screens swallow the day, movement, deep focus, and real rest disappear. We break down how to reclaim your time with standards, not motivation, and we walk through the five habits that change everything: walk 10,000 steps daily, lift heavy three to four days a week, eat real food and cut processed options, sleep seven to eight hours on a set schedule, and get daily sunlight on skin and in eyes to anchor circadian rhythms.

You’ll also hear a simple metaphor to keep you honest: health is a seesaw. Every choice adds weight to illness or wellness. Stack enough small wins and the board tilts your way—steadier moods, better labs, stronger bones and muscles, and a mind that can carry more without breaking. No hacks. No heroics. Just clear standards and consistent action.

If this message hits home, subscribe, share this with someone who needs a push, and leave a review to help more people trade comfort for strength. Your future self is watching—what will you choose today?

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SPEAKER_00:

We live in the most convenient era in human history, and we're the sickest, weakest, most anxious generation ever. That's not an accident. Comfort has replaced discipline, convenience has replaced effort, and people are shocked their bodies, marriages, finances, and minds are all falling apart. Welcome to another episode of Living a Full Life Podcast. I'm Dr. Enrico Dolchikori. Thanks for joining us on another week. In 2026, we're changing the tone. We're getting hard-knocked, real facts, short episodes to help you live healthier lives that you can influence you, your spouse, your family, your friends, anyone around you, or just focus on yourself. We have had many episodes. We're in our fourth season. We've had many episodes about many different topics about living health. And I think we just need to hammer down the truths and facts to digestible pieces of information so that we can just go on with our day. Learned this through going to church consistently in the last few years and just being more in tune with it. Church is one way to get a message, a certain message, a spiritual message. But there's other things you can do around all different parts of your life to improve all aspects of your life. You can do something weekly for your financial health. You can do something weekly for your physical health. You could do something weekly for your mental health. And when you repeat the habits over and over again, you make change. And that's what I noticed from church. I was like, man, I'm doing this consistently. I'm getting the message. I feel better. I feel more connected, less anxious, knowing that I can't control everything. That's what I got from it. And when it comes to health, maybe doing this every week can do this for people with their health. And I think it already has, but we're just going to hammer it down and just be really truthful. The questions that come out of a lot of podcasts are deep, they're detailed, they're analytical, which is wonderful. And now this year, the questions that are coming out are really, is that really that important? And I'm like, it absolutely is that important. And we live in such a great generation right now where we have everything to us. And I think that's part of the bigger problem. But we're gonna go through some key points on this episode about our overall health and how your body isn't broken, your lifestyle really is. Or maybe not yours, but people you know. Uh, chronic pain, obesity, fatigue, anxiety, gut issues, hormone problems, these didn't appear out of nowhere. They're built by sitting all day, ultra-processed foods, zero sunlight, no strength training, poor sleep, and constant dopamine hits. This is our society. The food guide in America finally changed. My entire life, the food pyramid was that old pyramid that went from at the top grains and dairy all the way down to, you know, meats at the bottom. And really, it's inverted now. Now it's saying meats and protein is your focus when you eat and vegetables and fruits, and works its way down to grain being the least that you need, completely flipping the American diet upside down. We have to think about this. Breakfasts were taken over, you know, 70 years ago by Kellogg's and all these things, making it very carb and sugar rich, uh, ultra-processed. And then we put everything in between two slices of bread or a tortilla wrap, and we just wrap everything with a little bit of lettuce, ultra-processed cheese, and then a little bit of chicken or a little bit of steak, right? If you go everywhere, I always look at the portions, right? Uh, a little uh quarter cup of chicken, a little quarter cup of steak, uh, veggie base or a kale base, or and then wrapped up in uh rice, tortilla, or bread. I mean, that's the American diet. Every restaurant in America, chain restaurant, does one variation of the other, either a base of rice, uh bread, or corn or tortilla. So it's it's kind of hilarious to watch at every chain do this. But now it's upside down. And I'm surprised by a little bit of the pushback from different organizations about it, saying it's not right. I don't know if it's political that they just don't like RFK, or if it's truly that they're against the actual flip. I can't believe there's anyone against it. We've been waiting so long to flip this because parents have been doing this for their children organically, changing this themselves, realizing, oh man, sugar and carbs is just driving my kids up the wall. I'm gonna flip this to more protein-based. And I think over the last two decades, protein has been coming up in the talks. So that's just one ultra-processed food. Deli ham, for your information, was the one that was classified as not number one carcinogen, meaning equating to cigarette smoke. Same thing. So smoking cigarettes and eating deli ham are both carcinogenic. Now, uh, not at the same frequency, not uh of this, but that's important to put up there as well. People have been screaming about ultra-processed meats as well. So I had a question about uh turkey is deli turkey as it is ultra-processed, but it was actually the deli ham, ham, uh pork specifically that was named a curcinogen just for your records. Zero sunlight, all these things uh have added up to a lifestyle that we live. And I don't have time is a lie. And we're gonna dissect this one. I think this one. I just don't have time. Our lifestyles are so busy, everyone says there's no time, but oh my gosh, is there more time than ever right now? Uh than ever before. My father was a farmer from Italy, uh, out rural Italy, had animals, had vegetables, had everything, actually transported goods to the markets uh in the food industry from farm to table. And when he says there was no time before, there really was no time. You worked all day. You physically worked all day. You watered, you plowed, you seeded, you pulled, you harvested, you took care of the animals, uh, you came inside, had some lunch, went back out, did the afternoon shift, maybe take a siesta for you know 30 minutes, come back out, have a nap, and then continue on with your day and then eat dinner. That was a time of no time. It was simpler life, but that was a time of no time. You literally were important. Now food comes to us at the grocery store. Um, people have time. We totally have time. I'm gonna give you some numbers that are gonna blow your mind. People have time for Netflix, scrolling on their phones, DoorDash, apps, and excuses, but not for walking, lifting, cooking, or sleeping properly. This is our generation. This is where we're at. I hear it all the time. I'm a doctor, I see anywhere between 20 to 70 patients a day, depending on the day, as a chiropractor. And that's a lot when you add it up day in, day out, four or five days a week times 19 years. You add this stuff over and over again, you see a lot of people, and you hear this. There's just no time. And I hear the excuses. And I just nod my head and continue on. But sometimes we have to be very direct and be like, that's an excuse. You need to do this. And like, ah, you're right, Doc. I need to do this. Medicine has become a permission slip. Pills for blood pressure instead of losing weight, GLP1s instead of changing habits, SSRIs instead of fixing sleep, movement, and purpose. We're medicating symptoms of a lifestyle we refuse to change. Pain is not the enemy. Weakness is. Discomfort is how bodies adapt, muscles grow from stress, bones strengthen from load, minds sharpen under challenge, and life engineered to be easy, produces fragile humans. And we are surrounded by a lot of fragile humans. And you're getting your information from fragile humans, and you're getting care and seeking help from fragile humans, and you're scrolling social media and listening to fragile humans. Surround yourself with strong humans, and I don't mean muscle, I mean mentally strong humans, and you'll see how beautiful this world really is. Nobody is coming to save you, not your doctor, not your spouse, not the government, no supplements, not a not a coach. Jesus might be you either decide to become disciplined or you stay comfortable and decay. Sitting and sedentary time in our society right now, 2026, the typical adult in the U.S. sits about 6.5 to 8 hours a day in a sedentary posture, not counting sleep, often without much physical activity. This is from the CDC's website. Some activity monitor studies show people spending 10 and a half hours a day sitting when measured objectively. At the end of the day, they calculate how much time was seated, 10 and a half hours. One in four American adults sits more than eight hours a day. One in four. For context, sitting this much is linked to higher risk of obesity, metabolic problems, heart disease, and even premature mortality, independent of formal exercise. So that's how much we sit. Social media usage. This is now its own topic that we need to talk about. People are on their phones mostly to scroll social media. Can you believe that? Global users, this is around the world, spend about two and a half hours per day on social media. In the US, daily social media usage is roughly two hours and 16 minutes. And this is from Statista. Some surveys show social media time creeping near two hours and 43 minutes, and younger users often going much higher than that. That's two hours just on social platforms alone, not including other screen habits, checking emails, doing other stuff. Okay, I'm adding up these hours for you here. Good. TV's time, we used to call it just TV. Now it's TV, streaming, and screen time. Average daily TV and streaming usage sits at about 3 to 3.7, 3.5 hours per day in the US and similar markets. When you add all screen time, TV, phones, and computers, many adults spend six to seven hours per day on screens. Some surveys show Americans spending an average of 10 hours online daily when you combine browsing, social media, work, and video usage, YouTube and all that other stuff. This means a large chunk of waking hours is absorbed by screens, often at the expense of movement, deep focus, or real world engagement. That's the difference between my father growing up, and that's the difference between our kids growing up right now. That's the inverse. Out in the field, plowing, feeding animals, taking care of them, uh harvesting all the hard work, whatever it was, whether you had a farm or not, or whether it was a mechanic shop, or whether it was uh a business, whatever it was, going to the market, moving boxes, setting up your vendor booth, selling product. It was a different time. Did people sit? Yeah, they sat, they pulled up a chair and sat, but they also worked hard as well. So you can see the inverse of what's happened. These numbers are alarming on uh a huge, a huge um scale, and why we are where we are today. So, what we really need to be focusing on is challenging ourselves to make change because it's not going to change, and your lifestyle is not gonna change. You've created so many habits over the decades, you it's hard to change. People don't change. My wife always argues with me on this. She's like, they absolutely do, they have no choice but to change. I'm like, no, the habits are built and programmed, it's very hard to change eating habits, sleeping habits, uh, digital use consumption, um, routines, habits, waking up. We wake up and do the same thing every day. We do the same thing right before bed. Uh, and even though we argue we are on the same page because we understand, yeah, even though people don't change, they will change if they have to. And that's where this comes in. The challenging you to making these changes, these are non-negotiables. These are the top five, these are the only five. You need to do all five. If you listen to me in other podcasts, I'm all I'm like, if you do one of these, you're ahead of the game. And I'll give you like five, six, seven tips. These are five tips that you need to implement all five. And you might be already doing some of them. So you may only have to implement one more. But these five is what tips the scale from moving our health. Your health is a seesaw. You know what a seesaw is? Do you remember it playing on it? Some of you listening right now don't even know what it is because you don't even play in a playground when you were a kid. But a seesaw, you put two people on each end, it's like a balance, right? If you ever use the balance, uh, on each end, and you go up and down and you just seesaw back and forth. Okay. Your health is like a seesaw. Your health is the middle structure, the middle portion of the seesaw. It is what it is. It doesn't move. It's planted, it has a foundation, it goes four feet into the ground, it's pure concrete, it doesn't move. The board moves, and you're two friends on each side. Each side of the health paradigm is you move towards illness or you move towards wellness. And this happens on a day-to-day basis. Some days you're on a streak, especially in January, you set some goals, you eat clean, no more alcohol, going to the gym, walking, less screen time, and it's all good because you set the New Year's resolution and you tip this scale to wellness. And then there's other days where you do other things and you don't do that much and you tip it towards illness. It's the seesaw. It's the seesaw. But what happens when one person gets off of the seesaw? That's it. It's tipped to the other side permanently. It's gonna go that way. So when we lose wellness or true potential to wellness, the only option is illness. There is no going back. This is pathology, this is, you know, stage four cancer, this is yeah, whatever. The end of the end, right? When the when you try and kick the other person off, this is where life changes. And unfortunately, that person's really stubborn. The illness side won't come off, but you can try and kick it and try and get it off. And that's what these five things are. Number one, which is number one, is walk 10,000 steps per day. There is, if you come short, you failed. You look at your Apple Watch, you see 9,246, and it's you know 10:30 at night, you're like, okay, I failed today. That's it. Be honest with yourself. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and hit 10. That's that's it. Move on to the next. But it's 10. When you look at your watch and it says 2,100 steps, you're on your pay, you're on your way for heart disease. You're on, you're just you just set up that day, you tilted it towards illness, you're going to heart disease. There's just no way because you didn't move. And I know you did 10 and a half hours seated today because the stats say you did, and I know you did. Number two, lift heavy three to four times a week. This is heavy. This is heavy. This is not going to the Zumba class. This is this is heavy movement. This is going there lifting a weight, being like, oh, here's a 20-pound kettlebell. I'm going to try and do some sumo squats with this. And then realizing you can do it, and then going back to the weight rack and picking up the 50-pound kettlebell and now doing sumo squats with that and be like, oh my gosh, I can't breathe. That's lifting heavy. Three to four days a week. Eat real food, not packaged food. Number three, eliminate processed foods as much as possible. Number four, sleep seven to eight hours per day. Make this non-negotiable. Set your sleep schedule in your smartphone to your bedtime and your starting wake-up time. So you set your alarm every day. It will automatically calculate your sleep goal. You put your sleep goal in as seven hours. Then it will automatically calculate. If you need to be up at 6 a.m. every day, it will calculate and tell you you need to be getting ready for bed at 10:30 at night. You just need to be going to bed at 10:30 at night so that you're asleep by 11 and you wake up by 6. Your watch, your phone, everything will remind you if you do this. It's a non-negotiable. Make it a non-negotiable in your life and get sunlight every day. This isn't talked about a lot. You need to get some skin to uh some sun directly on your skin every day. That reception, your skin is an organ. It needs to be taken care of. And we've changed it to having a shower. Having a shower is not how you take care of your skin. Your skin actually needs the microbiome that's on it. We keep washing it off with basic soaps every single day. We shower every day. I like uh George Carlin, an old comedian. He was like, listen, what are you doing in the shower for five, 10, 15 minutes? What the heck is going on? You need to be in the shower for 20 seconds. Wash your groin, your armpits, and your butt and get out. And he was absolutely right. Not only do you save water and all that other stuff, but that's all you really need to wash, is where bacteria builds up. The flora on our skin is supposed to be there. Anyways, I'm getting off track. There is a whole skin episode we did back in season two. Um, direct sunlight. It creates a cask, a hormonal cascade from the melanocytes in your skin. Your melanocytes are receptors, just like plants have uh chlorophyll. The photo, the photogenic response of the sunlight, the photons hitting the leaf, and chlorophyll, the chlorophyll process is the same in the in mammals with our skin. Uh, we can also get the sunlight benefits through our eyes as well. Seeing seeing that sunlight creates a whole different cascade as well. So that melanocyte reception in there causes an entire cascade that leads to vitamin D production in the body. We have a whole episode about that as well. So, those are the five non-negotiables that you should make in your life. I said I in this episode a couple times. It's not about me, it's about you. You don't need more motivation, you need a higher standard for yourself. Comfort feels good today. It costs you everything tomorrow. Being comfortable today costs you tomorrow. Spending the money today costs you in your retirement. Uh, doing these things today takes away from the things tomorrow. Discipline and consistency today gives you a bright future tomorrow. Don't listen to the pessimists who say everyone dies, you're gonna die. Why do all this? You just don't know when the end is coming. God does. So until then, it's your job to protect and amplify the gift you were given with your body and your life. And these are the ways to do it. Proven in and out over and over again, all that's changing is our environment. Screens and computers and blue light and EMF and Wi-Fi and radiation, and the environment's changing. But the principles are the same eat healthy, move your body, lift heavy, get sleep, get some sunlight. Do those things, and immediately you're gonna feel the effects of wellness in your life. It feels good, trust me on this. It feels absolutely wonderful. Stay well, stay healthy, and catch you next week.

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Dr. Enrico Dolcecore

Host
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Dr. Christine Hafer

Co-host