In this episode of The Thermo Diet Podcast Jayton Miller sits down with Joseph Areano, a long time Thermo Diet Group member and new UMZU Ambassador. Joseph has overcome phenomenal challenges in his health journey and shares his story with us in this episode. From being on SSRIs to having extreme fatigue and low libido Joseph has been through the ringer, but has come out on the other side a better man and human being with the help of the Thermo Diet and UMZU, Check it out and let us know what you think!
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Full Transcript
Jayton Miller:
Welcome back to the Thermo Diet podcast. I'm your host, Jayton Miller, and today I have Joseph Areano on the podcast. He is one of the people in the Thermo Diet community group. He has a phenomenal story to share with us today, so I'm really looking forward to chatting with him. Let's get into this one. So how are you doing today?
Joseph Areano:
I'm doing excellent. Can't complain at all. My energy, since I've been with UMZU, I think every day has been a step in the right direction. Every day has been a great day. And once you see that you are making progress, you wake up every day, you're amped, you're ready to get after it, it's a different form of life than I used to live. I used to regret waking up every day, low energy, low libido. But when I discovered UMZU it was like I'm waking up with a purpose every day and it's bringing life back to me.
Jayton Miller:
Heck yeah. That's awesome. So can you tell us how you got started with UMZU and your journey, because I think it's awesome, especially whenever you send in your story to us. It was just mind blowing. So can you give us a little overview?
Joseph Areano:
Yeah, absolutely. So just to give a quick background on my situation. My story starts in sophomore year of college. I graduated Bryant University last year in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and in sophomore year, it's college, so everyone's having a great time, not a worry in the world. Everyone's just partying, drinking, having fun, living with six of my best friends. And that year, I'm not living a very healthy, natural lifestyle, and I started to get severe, severe anxiety. And there's no reason for it. I can't pinpoint it on anything. I'm living a great life, got great family, great friends. Nothing on the surface seems wrong, but I'm waking up tired, I'm waking up anxious every single day.
Joseph Areano:
So naturally the first thing I did was I went to my doctor, which was my first move. My normal doctor. And what he did was he said, "This is normal, happens to a lot of kids your age." And just told me you will be taking this medication that will help out with your anxiety. And it was called an SSRI, which I had no idea at the time what that was. And he gave me an SSRI called us citalopram, and he said it would take about a week to kick in and your anxiety should be healed. And there was really no conversation around it besides that. So I started taking the SSRI and literally what he said happened in about a week. I felt better. It was a little crazy. At the time I remember thinking, "Wow, doctors are the kings of the universe. They just made this anxiety disappear from my life." And I remember thinking at the time, I'm always going to rely on doctors for any single information that I have or any problems that I need.
Joseph Areano:
But if you fast forward a little bit, I'll skip a lot of the details, but after about two years of taking the SSRI, I started noticing all my symptoms coming back. This is now my senior year of college, and not only does it come back, but it comes back worse. I'm starting to get really, really anxious again for no reason. I'm starting to get really depressed for no reason. I have low libido, low energy. This is senior year of college, it's supposed to be the prime of my life and I had nothing to show for it. I had a job lined up outside of school, I had great family, great friends, and I was just anxious and sad, low libido, low energy, and I couldn't figure out why. What was going on? I ended up actually, I'm taking a leave of absence on my last semester from school, because it was just that bad.
Joseph Areano:
Long story short, I was still able to graduate, but I'm coming out of senior year of school with no plan in place whatsoever, wondering why I am struggling so much after taking this SSRI and thinking that life was going to be better. And I went back to my doctor and all he did was he switched the SSRI that I was taking. If I just take you through the story a little bit, that's what happened. The next era of my life was switching from SSRI to SSRI, switching from different types of psychotic medication. I was prescribed Xanax for a little while. Was the second line of defense and just the thought of having to take those medications and think that I needed to rely on those medications made me even more anxious and depressed than I originally was. So I was just spiraling downhill dramatically for a long period of time.
Joseph Areano:
And luckily I did end up getting a job and graduating school on time through a teacher's help. And I had a good amount of free time during my first job, and I was like, "Okay, I need to start looking into my own health and start taking it into my own hands." And at the time I recognized not only was my energy and my sleep was really bad, I kept waking up in the middle of the night, but I noticed I had some severe libido issues, which I mentioned earlier, but it just got worse and worse. So I actually went to a doctor in Boston. I'm from the Boston area. And I actually was assigned one of the best endocrinologists in the country who is from Harvard. And we took some blood tests and I had a testosterone below 200 ng/dL, which is alarmingly, alarmingly low.
Joseph Areano:
So he said 90% sure this must be a pituitary tumor, which would cause a low testosterone. And I know Chris had a similar issue. But mine's a little bit different because when we took the MRI of my brain, they actually found no pituitary tumor. So at this point, I had now gone through my normal doctor who just prescribed SSRIs, he sent me to a psychiatrist who's tried different SSRS, and now I go to the Harvard endocrinologist who doesn't exactly know what's wrong with me. So now it feels like nobody on my side or on my team that knows the direction of what to go. I took matters into my own hands at this point and I was really struggling and I found UMZU basically through Chris's Road To Ripped podcast with Greg O'Gallagher. I remember at the time I was like, "I just want to get shredded," so I started following Greg O'Gallagher for a while and Kinobody.
Joseph Areano:
And that led me to his podcast, which introduced me to Chris. And I remember one episode in particular, Chris was talking about how gut health was linked to everything and how your gut is your your second brain. And it just took over from there. When I found that video and I saw alternative solutions or potential alternative solutions, I was like, "All right, this is one of my only shots. I've tried everything else. I've looked into every direction. It seems no one's on my side and the obvious answers aren't working for me." So I started following Chris. I started following you guys, the Thermo Diet, and this is all going back just seven months ago, which I started my journey in.
Joseph Areano:
And once I found you guys, I went 100% in, full force, full throttle. And what's funny is my anxiety... I started the gynecomastia stack because I came from a lot of an estrogen dominant state and I started the gut health bundle, and I started Redwood all at the same time because I was just so convinced by all the videos and all the podcasts and following you guys, following Jayton and Chris and Jake Miner, that, "Holy crap, this stuff is going to work.' And what happened was when I started taking it, my anxiety started to disappear over a couple of weeks span. I don't know what it was in particular. I'm sure it was a combination of every supplement that I was taking, but simultaneously my anxiety started getting better, my gut problems started getting better, I started waking up with a little more energy. I started waking up with morning wood again?
Joseph Areano:
So I just noticed everything in my life since I started taking these was improving. Where I think my story is different is I was taking Xanax and I was on severe SSRI medication, and when I found UMZU, I actually didn't really need to take that stuff anymore. I was able to lower my dosages and wean off of that. And I know that taking SSRIs raises your serotonin levels a little bit or a lot, so I was always worried about that. But when I found Chris's supplements, I was able to stop taking all those medications. I don't have to take much of those anymore.
Joseph Areano:
And when I finally reached my moment of progression is where I said, "Hey, this stuff is working. Not only is it helping me go in the right direction, but I feel like I have more energy than I've ever had before and I can accomplish anything that I ever have before." And I would absolutely love to help people out who come from a similar situation of anxiety, depression, or gut problems, because I had it all, and ever since I found you guys, everything has been trending in the right direction, absolutely everything. And it's just remarkable what you guys are to be able to do.
Jayton Miller:
That's awesome. I love hearing that, man. It makes me feel really good being able to talk to somebody who has gone through something that and come out on the other side for the better. What do you think is one of the most significant lessons that you learned going through that?
Joseph Areano:
I think that the biggest lesson that I took away was the right... The obvious answer, or the people that you think you should lean on the most, isn't always the case. You have to look in every single direction. The most obvious answer for me when I was struggling with anxiety and depression is go to a doctor, take SSRIs. But at the time I didn't question that. That's what I would recommend to anyone in any position that is having health problems. Just question what you're doing and what you're being told, because if I didn't end up eventually questioning that and looking at different paths that aren't necessarily as more obvious as going to a doctor, going to see a doctor from Harvard to talk about your testosterone and all those obvious answers, then you look in different directions and stuff that may be hidden, and there's reasons why that information is hidden. Kind of a side topic, but if you always follow the money, money influences everything that happens in the United States, so a lot of stuff can become hidden.
Joseph Areano:
So you just got to be aware of where your information is coming from and know that you don't have one option. There's so many options out there. And if you just keep looking like I did, you'll eventually find what works for you and the right option. You just got to be leery of just accepting things that you're being told. At one point, this is a tough [inaudible 00:00:12:33], but my doctor said, "I think you have bipolar." And I was just like, "Whoa." I have been fine for the majority of my life. I remember thinking back in my teens and younger ages, I was so happy, so energetic all the time, and it just recently... Anxiety just came to me randomly at a point in my life. And I was like, "I don't accept that as an answer."
Joseph Areano:
I don't think I have bipolar. They gave me some different anxiety and bipolar medications and ever since I looked in a different direction because I just didn't want to accept, "Hey, I mark you as bipolar. Here's what you're going to do for the rest of your life." So when I found Chris's videos and the Thermo Diet group and UMZU, just took off and everything, I couldn't it repeat even more, everything about my life improved. Energy, sex drive. My testosterone went from 200, below 200, right now sitting around 600 ng/dL. So everything about my life, including the statistics, has improved. It's just crazy the journey I've been on. But yeah, that would be my biggest piece of advice is just keep looking in as many directions as you can, because you always can learn new information and the most obvious answers always aren't the correct answers.
Jayton Miller:
Definitely. What do you think is one of the most significant things that kept you going during that time? What kept you looking and pursuing something?
Joseph Areano:
I think what kept me going when I was at my absolute lowest was I would just look around and look at kids my age and be like, "They're in the exact same spot as I am in terms of life." If not, I feel like out of luck and hard work, I have it a better situation than a lot of people. And I was just wondering, how in the world are they living and thriving and prospering and having tons of energy and I'm not? And I just wouldn't accept an answer that I'm different or I have this health problem and I have to deal with it in a different way for the rest of my life. I wasn't born with any health problems, so I refuse to accept that, "Hey, this is your fate given to you by a doctor. You have to take it and manage it."
Joseph Areano:
I always thought, "Hey, I used to feel great. I could get back to that point." That's Chris talks about. Just returning to the Thermo state when you were born. And I didn't know that at the time, but that same concept is what kept me going, is I've felt great in the past. There's no way what I've been doing in my life, something had to have changed to make me feel this. And looking back on it, I was overweight, poor eating habits, no awareness of endocrine disruptors, no awareness of balancing your hormones or getting the right micronutrients. I wasn't aware of any of that. And no one really explains to you how simple the human body is and how the gut's like a second brain and you absorb nutrients and then the nutrients go to your cells and you correct your micronutrients and as long as your gut health is in place, everything else will follow.
Joseph Areano:
And no one explains that to you in any health class. How simple of a concept that is. And that's what kept me going when I found out that information from Chris's podcast of how simple... Even though it can take a while, but how simple the fix can be. So that's what kept me going, is I just refused to just take what was given to me. I knew that I could return to my old self, if not be better, which I... The best thing about UMZU is every day I wake up... This is going to sound crazy. But every day I wake up and I'm like, "So this is what my new 100% is." I feel I'm at 100%, but now I'm going above 100% every single day, so it's what is my new 100%? I don't know what it is. That's the coolest thing about it. I don't know how much further I can improve. It's crazy.
Jayton Miller:
Definitely. That's awesome. So whenever it comes to the Thermo Diet, what are some of the tips or the hacks that you've been able to discover?
Joseph Areano:
So number one tip or hack is follow Jake Miner religiously. That is the best advice I could offer. I could pretend to sit up here and pretend that I know all, but whatever Jake tells you to do or gives advice, I follow that. He knows exactly what he's doing and he's got it [inaudible 00:17:37], because ever since I started his tips and tricks for the Thermo Diet, life has been so much different. The amount of energy that I have. One of biggest things that he talked about, since I come from a little bit higher of an estrogen state is the carrots. I do that first thing every morning. I make sure... And then he goes so far in depth that like, "Oh, make sure you chew the carrot fully before you swallow it so you can get the proper amount of enzymes, and then the white wine vinegar."
Joseph Areano:
And I think just the difference between what was in my diet, and just focusing on where the sources of my food is coming from. I don't care that I'm now at the grocery store looking at... People watching me as I'm looking at labels and looking at making sure where the source is coming from, that it's good. But I think that's the biggest thing if people are starting is go 80/20 to start, or just focus on something that you know you're struggling with. I remember the first few weeks I tried to go 100% full tilt and I had a little bit of backlash just because it was... I missed my old died a little bit, now I'm going to splurge. But when I went 80/20 to start, then I was able to transition of, "Okay, you can treat yourself a little bit here and there," but then my cravings went away eventually when I was on the 80/20.
Joseph Areano:
So then I was able to transition to 100% Thermo. So I think if you are starting the Thermo Diet, and I know when we first look at it, it does look kind of intimidating and looks you have to change a lot, but you really don't. You can still eat the foods that you like. I eat potatoes and steak every single day, and I'm living a King. So the way I would just say it is just start 80/20, gradually go into it, make the biggest whatever you want to focus on first, attack that. For me, it was my meat sources. I was not getting grass fed beef at all. I was eating out all the time. I was consuming plenty of PUFAs. So just switching into my meat sourcing.
Joseph Areano:
And then Chris talks about this a lot is start cooking as soon as you can. I know the first week for me was a little bit rough, just because, "Oh, I'm tired. I don't want to cook." But once you start cooking, possibilities are endless because then you just really start to enjoy your food and enjoy the process, especially when you're cooking for other people. You just get a little bit of a euphoria that I hadn't had before, and now I appreciate my food even more. So that's what I would say.
Jayton Miller:
Heck yeah. That's awesome. So what are you looking forward to as far as the Thermo Diet and UMZU?
Joseph Areano:
I'll start with UMZU first. Every supplement that I've tried from UMZU, I know I'll sound crazy, but I've noticed a difference. Some of them bigger than others, but I... For instance, Redwood, since I started taking Redwood, I haven't... I get sick a lot. I haven't been sick a day. The gut health solution I used to have, excuse my language here, wet poops every single day, and now completely completely normal bowel movements. My estrogen, I used to have lumps in my chest. That's been going away. Every single... TETRO-X.My libido has gone up. And as you can see, with specific numbers tested from Harvard, I went from 200 to 600 ng/dL. So everything, every supplement that is taken and even had... I got my micronutrients tested before and six months later since I took the supplements, and all of them were starting to balance.
Joseph Areano:
So with the combination of how I felt and actually seeing physical results on paper, I was like, "Holy crap, everything I've been taking is working." So every supplement that UMZU comes up with, I'm just like, "Oh my God, I need to try it. What are the benefits I can reap from this?" Which is what I'm really excited about with UMZU is just try it all. I've gone through, I think, every single one of their products and noticed a difference for every single thing.
Joseph Areano:
And in terms of the Thermo diet, I've talked to Jake a lot recently and just been following his things and I'd probably say I'm on 90% Thermo right now would probably be my guess. I think what I'm looking forward to is fully getting to that 100%, because I know how well I feel and the more I follow the Thermo Diet, the more energy I have, the more alive I feel. I guess the thing I'm looking forward to the most is what I said earlier, waking up every day, I'm like, "This is my new 100%. No, this is my new 100%." I love correcting myself. It was funny, I never was able to do that before. I was always kind of like, "Life is tough. I don't know why every day is such a struggle."
Joseph Areano:
But now I wake up every day with a new attitude, a new energy, a new purpose. The confidence is the biggest thing I can vouch for, for people who are looking for any of the supplements or the Thermo Diet is just the confidence and energy received is crazy. My whole mindset is different now. I went from being scared, lonely, frightened all the time, and now just feel like I can legit do anything. It feels if I put enough effort in, in any aspect of my life, I could accomplish what I wanted to. So that's what I'm looking forward to the most, just continuing down that path. I'm finally trending upwards and I just don't see an end in sight for now.
Jayton Miller:
Heck yeah. That's a phenomenal feeling. It feels great whenever you can feel that on a daily basis.
Joseph Areano:
Yeah. Can't beat waking up just being... You just wake up with that energy, that purpose, that drive, and just... I never, never had that before. And when you finally get it, you just never want it to go away. That's when I knew, I'm like, "All right, I'm UMZU for life now. Thermo Diet for life. Betting that these people know what they're talking about."
Jayton Miller:
Heck yeah. So do you have any social media or anything that people can follow?
Joseph Areano:
Yeah, I'm on all types of social media. I'm on Instagram at AreanoJoe, A-R-E-A-N-O, and then Joe. I got a Facebook, same exact thing, Joe Areano. I even got Twitter if people dabble in Twitter too, @Areano.Joe as well. But I've been doing a little more fitness stuff on my Instagram page. I'm looking to grow that a little bit as well with the UMZU ambassador group, which would be really cool. I'm just that a beginner in all those aspects, but I think there's plenty of opportunity to grow my social media in terms of being able to impact the people around me and show people what UMZU has done for me and what it can do for people. And I just want to be able to grow my social media just to tell my story, because like I said, I have a pretty cool story and it would give people a lot of hope. So I would love to grow my social media as much as I can.
Jayton Miller:
Heck yeah. Definitely. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to hop on here. Everybody listening, make sure to go check out everything that he has to offer, and we're looking forward to working with you inside of the ambassador program. Thanks again for listening to the Thermo Diet Podcast. Make sure, if you haven't already, to hit the button, subscribe, and leave us a review. It helps us out a ton.
