Lentil venison breakfast bowl

There’s a good amount of prep work involved with this dish, but once you’ve cooked the venison, lentils and brussels, you’ll have enough for a few meals.

I used Force of Nature Ground Venison which contains 3 percent of grass fed beef. Heat a skillet on medium-high heat. Add olive oil and a pinch of salt, let it heat up. Throw in the venison and flat it out in the pan and sprinkle some salt on top. Let it sit for about five minutes before flipping it over (it’s easier if you cut the large patty in half or quarters to flip it). Let it cook for another five minutes to brown the other side. Then chop it up in the pan with a wooden spoon and allow the meat to cook all the way through.

For your lentils, bring 3 cups of water to 1 cup of lentils to boil, then reduce the heat to low to a simmer. Cook for 15 - 20 minutes or until your lentils are soft but not mushy (I like them both ways).

Cut the stems off your brussels and then cut them in half or quarters if they are bigger. Toss them in a bowl with olive oil and salt. Dump them into a pre-heated skillet. Pour a couple of tablespoons of water into the pan to create some steam, and then cover them. Let them sit for five minutes, then toss them using a flick of the wrist or a wooden spoon, and cover them again, letting them sit for five - six more minutes, or until you can easily pierce them with a fork.

Assemble your bowl: Lentils, ground venison, brussel sprouts. Add a pinch of salt and white wine vinegar to taste. Slice up an avocado and a tomato, and top with a fried egg. Add another pinch of salt and white wine vinegar and some EVO if you wish!

Buon Appetito!

Writing and Exercise

When I left my job five years ago I became dedicated to building a writing practice. I’m not sure I could explain why, but for some reason it felt important, and like something I should be doing. So I started, like most, with a journal. Sometimes I wrote daily, sometimes weekly. Mostly I wrote at night, right before bed. Sometimes I’d wake up ready to write. But any period of consistency was met with equal or longer periods of not writing. It was hard to keep it going.

My longest streak was 50 straight days in 2021. I was participating in a 50 day run challenge. I thought, I could write about how the challenge is going each day. It worked.

But other than that, it’s been a serious of starts and stops. In contrast to my writing practice, my exercise practice hasn’t missed more than a few weeks over the same period of time.

Exercise comes naturally to me is what I tell myself, but that’s wrong. If it feels natural, that’s because I’ve been doing it for 24 straight years. More than half my life.

So the question is, like my writing practice, what did my exercise practice look like 19 years ago, when I was only 5 years in. I’m sure there was room for improvement (and still is).

If I take my experience writing from the last few years, and compare it to trying to start an exercise routine at 36, I can see where people struggle.

Unlike writing, in addition to being mentally taxing, exercise is physically challenging. If you’re new, there’s a lot to learn. You have to leave your house to do it. You’re going to be sore. There’s other less challenging, more fun things you could be doing. Building that habit is hard.

For people that have built exercise into a habit, we’ve forgotten about all these pain points. Well writing has made me sensitive to them again.

But I also feel reassured. Because after five years my writing practice is keeping up (at least in consistency, if not quality) with my exercise practice. Do anything enough and you’re bound to improve.

Morgan Housel on Writing

Tim Ferriss with Morgan Housel

He said something that stuck with me.

He doesn’t write multiple drafts. He writes one. The reason is because he doesn’t end a sentence until he’s completely satisfied with it. Said another way, he revises as he’s writing.

I thought this was very interesting, because I’ve always heard the opposite. The key was to let your thoughts run onto the paper and then come back for the clean up. But I liked his approach. It made sense to me, and it reminded me of a similar piece of advice I heard on a podcast years ago.

The guest was talking about a friend’s meditation practice. He noted that his friend meditated by thinking in complete sentences. Which sounds intuitive. But if you think about it, how often are you bouncing from one thought to another without completing the one you are on? At the time I heard this, the answer for me was most of the time.

That changed everything for me.

I credit this change of mindset with helping me make a lot of progress across many aspects in my life where I previously struggle. Writing. Reading. Oral communication. Thinking in general.

Creative endeavors can seem like flows of consciousness. I always thought they were. But that’s not always the case. They can also be well thought out and meticulous in their design. I know the latter works better for me.

Stick to What’s Easy and Effective

I like to find things (hacks?) that have a high efficacy and are easy to fit into my day. Here are a couple:

1. Crossing your legs when seated is beneficial to hip health. And a good indicator of healthy longevity is being able to stand up from a crossed leg position without using your hands. So I try this whenever I’m seated on the floor. It gives me a few bonus reps everyday.

2. Down regulating after a workout. Set a five minute timer on your phone. Lie down. Close your eyes and cover them. Breath in through your nose and out your mouth until your timer goes off. This simple moves help to let your workout soak in by calming your nervous system before walking out of the gym.

Sharon Osbourne on Ozempic

In a lot of ways this article highlights what can never be tested in a clinical trial. The mental impact of these drugs. As she points out, it became addicting to lose weight, and I fear that will be the case for many people, especially children.

Children are so impressionable. What they experience in their youth sticks with them. If the message they’re getting is to be skinny by not eating, then that sets them up for a lifetime of battling food disorders. It’s not hard for it to happen. I know because it happened to me.

When I was getting into triathlon racing I had an image of what someone who wins races looks like. Long and lean (skinny), with minimal muscle. I by contrast was 5’7” and 165 lbs of mostly muscle (my girlfriend calls me “dense”). I knew if I wanted to compete I had to be lighter (skinny). And so I focused on shedding the weight.

I mostly did it through exercise bulimia (attempting to burn more calories through exercise than I consumed). I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I was working out really hard to achieve a goal (to be competitive). It seemed positive. Until it didn’t.

Over time I became tormented with every food decision. What to eat. How much to eat. When to eat. I’d have to convince myself that what I just ate was okay, or that I could always make it up later with more exercise. There wasn’t a meal or snack that didn’t get questioned in my mind.

I eventually got down to 140 lbs. The weight I thought I needed to be at.

By the time I got down to that weight I was in the deepest of my weight loss addiction throws, and I was realizing that it was no longer (never was) healthy. The only way to end it was give up racing. So around this time that’s what I decided to do, and I stopped racing and training so intensely. It had been over 2 years of torture, and unraveling my self-imposed conditioning was not easy.

It’s been over 2 years since I stopped racing, and I’m only now getting back to having a healthy relationship with my food. From the outside in no one would’ve ever thought I had a problem. I hid it well.

I went through this in my 30s. I came into it with 15+ years of healthy, balanced exercise and diet routines and experience. And it still got me. What chance will a child have who grows up thinking not eating to be skinny is healthy? The answer, is not much.

The Children

We really need to focus on the children. We can’t be sentencing them to a life of surgery and medicine. We just cant. It sickens me every time I see it suggested. And recently that’s been a lot.

Children hold hope for the future. They can be taught how to be healthy and strong. Their body’s are malleable and adept at adapting. There’s time for all of them to turn the tables for themselves and secure a more certain future.

If there’s one thing we should be able to get right and agree on, it’s that every child should have access to the food he or she needs to grow up healthy and active. That every child should have access to exercise resources that will help embed healthy routines into their lives from a young age.

That’s not impossible to accomplish. I don’t think it’s asking a lot. It can be easily done if resources were redirected and stricter regulations (i.e. on school lunches) were put in place.

I’d love to see a future where the newest generation sees this come to fruition.

Use Every Opportunity

I’ve been working on my writing practice for 5 years now (you can tell right?). My writing abilities have a long way to go, but they have also come a long way. One thing I credit is always taking the opportunity to write when asked.

This is mostly the case when it comes to submitting reviews, leaving comments, or, in the rare occasion, being asked to write a story.

This happened to me recently.

The National Parks Programs sent out an email asking me (everyone) to tell them about why they love the National Parks and why they’re so special to them.

In a past life, one that consisted of 70 hour work weeks, I would’ve deleted their email without a thought. But this time, I took it as an opportunity to work on my writing and share.

“Acadia was the first park in the United States I had ever been to. A year earlier I traveled to Patagonia for a 7 day backpacking trip. It was the first time I had ever tent camped, backpacked or spent any significant time outdoors. I was 30. That trip inspired me to want to see all the beauty that our parks here in the U.S. had to offer. The following summer I took off on a 3-month road trip from New York to California. My plan was to stop at as many national parks as possible. And I did. Acadia. Both Badlands. Joshua Tree. Rocky Mountain. Grand Canyon. Arches. Canyonlands. Zion Bryce. To name more than a few. Since that trip I’ve probably been to a dozen more. The thing that I love about our parks is how accessible and well planned out they are. There is something for everyone to do and there is something to enjoy, whether you’re just passing through for the day, or your hanging out for a weekend. There is so much beauty in our parks and I wish everyone in this country would get the chance to experience them. Sincerely. James.”

They published my story! Yay! My first publications lol…

Whatever craft you’re trying to hone, look around at the opportunities in front of you to practice. Reviews and commenting were never on my radar, but now I see them as a chance to improve.

Eventually you get used to it

For good and for bad your body adapts

Every summer when vegetables are at their peak and all my favorite produce (tomatoes, onions, spinach) is in abundance, I wonder how I’m ever going to go back to the supermarket for my groceries.

I can’t stand the lack of taste and character that I’ve grown to associate with apples flown in from Chile, or tomatoes grown in a greenhouse.

At the end of every summer I wonder what I’ll eat all winter.

But slowly necessity (nutrition) outweighs wants (local produce) and I find myself walking along the wall of produce picking out what to make.

The lack of taste and texture eventually fades, and by summer I’m surprised all over again at the difference between local and imported food.

Happy or Stuck

You either have to be happy or have your back against the wall to be productive. Or both. But if neither of those two things are true. If you’re unhappy and comfortable, then you’re not going to get much accomplished. You need an incentive.

Happiness and joy is a good one. So is needing to survive. That’s why you need at least one.

I’ve fallen into that trap. Having enough, not needing more, but also just feeling mildly content enough to where doing more work felt counter productive. There was an inverse relationship (or so it appeared) between work and return on that work.

Now I’m trying to stir up both. I’m trying to stay happy, while also forcing my back to the wall.

Being Happy

I’ve been happy now for the longest period of my life. And I’m not used to it. I hope that changes over time.

In prior periods of happiness, I just waited for them to end. Because inevitably they did. But this time it’s been different.

I’m not sure if my sustained happiness is because of a change in mindset. Rooting for it to continue instead of waiting for it to end. Or because I’ve begun to find things in my life I’ve been searching for. A partner. A home. A creative outlet.

Either way, I’m wishing it to continue and hope it will. Know it will.

Everything That’s Irresistible

Every thing that’s ever been irresistible about life is now at it’s most abundant, accessible and affordable it’s ever been.

Media

Social media is the most addictive media we’ve ever faced. You can’t turn it off. You carry it around with you all day. You can’t leave it home like you did the radio, or turn it off like you can a TV. It’s with you everywhere.

It provides a feeling of community while being disconnected. Of being liked while hating yourself. Of providing information that is usually promoted. It’s so toxic.

Food

Ultra processed food has got to be the most advanced form of food we’ve ever known. It is designed to be extremely palatable and hit a dopamine bliss point in your brain. Keeping you coming back for more and more.

That fact that it is so deconstructed and repackaged means it is both easily digestible and calorically dense, which combines to enable over eating.

Drugs

Opioids are the main focus, but all drugs today are at their most potent. “They don’t make weed like they used to” is something I hear often. But opioids?

It started with lies about Oxycontin that got thousands of people addicted. Then it turned to fentanyl. A drug that is 100x morphine. Anyone whos ever been under morphine knows how strong fentanyl must be.

Everything is at it’s height keeping everyone distracted, lethargic and broken.

It shouldn’t be hard to see why our country remains inequitable and divided.

Bad Decisions

The only bad decision is the one you can’t handle.

If you’re looking to move and deciding between whether to buy or rent, the only thing that matters is whether or not you can deal with the consequences of either.

Buying a house will require laying out a lot of upfront cash. Maybe you don’t care because you’re looking to diversify your investments anyway. But if giving up a large swath of cash is going to cause financial strain or even just the feeling of it, then maybe buying isn’t a good idea even if it’s the smart investment choice.

Renting requires paying off someone else’s debt and being okay with it. But it does offer more flexibility financially and down the like if you’re looking to move.

Anything can be rationalized. In the end the smart decision is the one you can live with.

Waste

Everyone talks about the effects of too much waste, then they go and waste. Take out containers. Take out drinks. Ziplock bags. Aluminum foil. Paper towels. Whatever it is. Watch someone for a while and you’ll find how much they waste.

I hate being wasteful. It comes off as being frugal, or cheap. But I’m not the latter. I just don’t like to waste. Whether that’s floss or money, I just don’t see the point.

So when I see people waste around me it twists my insides because I can picture that plastic cup or styrofoam container sitting in a pile of garbage rotting, just poisoning our land and water. And it kills me.

So I try not to be wasteful. I try to be very conscious of it. And frugal. But I know it’s such an up hill battle in the quick, easy, efficient world we live in where nothing is meant to last. Sadly, including the planet.

Locked Away

My mind works best when my body is moving. But for some reason, whenever I want to be productive, I sit down at a desk in an office. And it’s not long before burn out ensues and I need to move. It’s like an agitated calling I can’t put off anymore and so I do something physical.

My minds opens up and things become clear again. My thoughts return and ideas become possible again. And an amount of progress is made.

When I return to the office filled with inspiration, it’s enough to make me sit still. And no progress is made.

Trump

I hate Trump for all the reasons that anyone who hates Trump hates Trump. But I also admire him.

I admire him for his willingness to break away from the conventional. To a lot of people they see this and think “he’s a criminal.” Maybe. I don’t know.

But what I do know is that he figured out how to come into the Republican Party as a complete outsider who many people despised and never wanted to see him win, and he won.

Now, during the Republican primaries he’s refusing to debate. It’s pissing a lot of people off who want to see him on the stage. And it’s pissing off the other candidates who want the opportunity to debate him (or at least they say they do). But the reality is, as annoying as it might be, as pompous as it might seem, and as unconventional as it is, it is the reason I also appreciate it.

He’s figured out that Republican debates (any debates) are meaningless and ineffective. He’s realized that he can make better use of his time by holding a rally, and taking 3 hours to deliver his message to people who want to hear it, instead of sharing 3 hours arguing to make a point.

Winning sometimes requires breaking the mold and being unconventional. And while some of his methods might appear “unethical” or “immoral” (the courts will decide) the take away is that, to win, and disrupt an industry (two party politics), you need to be willing to take risks and piss a few people off.

New Gym Jitters

My mother purchased my first gym membership for me when I was 15. I wasn’t even able to drive. I either had to walk or hope my brother wanted to drive me and join me for a workout. 

It’s been over 21 years since then, and between moving and traveling, I’ve probably seen the inside of 40 - 50 gyms across the country and the world. And yet despite my years of experience, I still get the new gym jitters. 

It happened just again this past week after moving to Colorado.

The new gym jitters can be summed up as feeling like everyone is staring at you, the “new comer,” “the outsider,” judging what you’re doing, and that you’re in everyone’s way… all the time.

It reminds me every time just how judgey a gym can feel. And it makes me think every time about the real new comers and outsiders struggling to find their place.

The person walking through the gym doors for the first time ever. The person who is trying to get back into a routine after years of letting themselves go. The people who feel uncomfortable in their body before even walking in the door. 

If it takes a 20 year gym veteran who’s comfortable in their own skin a week or more to truly acclimatize and find a rhythm, how long does it take someone who’s never been in a gym before? Someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing? Who walks in the door feeling insecure? Is it a month? Months? A year? More?

It’s no wonder that the average person doesn’t want to walk into a gym in the first place, let alone come back.

It’s one of the reasons I like going to new gyms so often. It forces me to tone it all down a little bit. To consider everyone around me. To smile more. And to go out of my way to make everyone feel welcomed to join in on the fun.

And mostly, it keeps me humble and kind, because it keeps this observation front of mind.

Putting myself in new situations is one way I keep myself from getting too inflated.

If Obesity Is Treated Through Appetite Suppression, Then There's A Better Solution

I’ve been blown away with the amount of coverage that drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, and more recently Mounjaro and Zepbound have been receiving. This coordinated promotion by the media was preceded by years of “experts” telling people that excessive weight gain, resulting in obesity and other chronic conditions, was genetic and out of their control. But now with insight into how this new class of drugs works, it’s clear that they were lying all along.

Wegovy and Ozempic work by mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1), while Mounjaro and Zepbound mimic GLP1 and another hormone called glucose dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP). Research discovered that these two hormones help to reduce appetite, slow digestion (making you feel fuller longer), and help regulate blood sugar by increasing insulin. The combination of these three things is the reason people are experiencing a reduction in body-weight of 15 - 20% while on these drugs.

To which I say, obviously.

It’s been taboo for so long to say that over eating and consuming excessive amounts of sugar will lead to weight gain. But it’s been made taboo not because it’s insensitive to the people who are struggling (42% of adults and 20% of children are obese) but because it would require our leaders to face a harsh reality. That too many Americans lack access to healthy food, and the food that is available to them is laden with sugar, sweeteners, dyes, and a whole host of ingredients I couldn’t even pronounce.

50 million Americans (15% of the population) experienced food insecurity in 2022, defined as a lack of access to adequate healthy food that allows you to live an active life. By that definition then the real number must be 2 - 3x what was reported.

It’s not a problem they want to admit nor solve.

The government isn’t interested in a healthy population, they’re interested in one that they and their donors can profit off of (this was exemplified during the pandemic when vaccines were promoted as the only way out, despite evidence to the contrary).

Which is why these weight-loss drugs have been embraced so emphatically. They present the appearance of “doing good” while making billions in the process.

Morgan Stanley predicts that this new class of drugs will be a $77 billion industry by 2030, drawing comparisons to drugs developed in the 80s to treat hypertension (high blood pressure), that rose to a $30 billion industry in the 90s (of note, the prevalence of high blood pressure has only increased since that time).

Ozempic and Wegovy are manufactured and sold by Novo Nordisk. From January to September 2023 Novo Nordik saw operating profits grow 37%, and 48% in the third quarter. They’re projecting sales growth for their next fiscal year of 32-38%, mostly fueled by the large demand for these drugs. The market cap (the value of a company) of Novo Nordisk now trumps the total GDP of Denmark, the country it’s based out of.

Others are looking to cash in as well. WeightWatchers recently spent $106 million to acquire a telemedicine company, Sequence, so they could have the ability to prescribe these drugs.

If it feels like a feeding frenzy, that’s because it is.

But like all drugs, these don’t come without side effects. The most mild of which are nausea, hair loss, gastric distress and reflux. In some animal studies the growth of thyroid tumors was present. More concerning is the prevalence of gastric obstruction reported by type II diabetes patients who have been taking the drug for more than one year. Gastric obstruction requires surgery and can be fatal.

Most patients who take these drugs report a 15 - 20% reduction in bodyweight for as long as they’re on it. Patients who stop using the drug regain most, if not all, of the weight, thereby creating a lifelong patient (music to drug maker’s ears). Meanwhile studies have shown that 40% of the weight loss experienced is lean mass (bone and muscle).

I shudder to picture a future world in which a whole generation of children grow up taking any one of these drugs (as is now being pushed on them). The health of a whole generation is being traded for profit. What will become of children whose lean mass is compromised and are never given access to healthy foods, or to learn healthy habits and why it’s important to be active?

These drugs provide cover for our leaders, and allow them to escape accountability and sweep the real issue under the rug: Lack of access to healthy whole foods has caused a majority of the population to turn to ultra processed foods (UPFs) and sugar for their calories, and these two things are slowly killing us.

It’s no wonder that the largest federal food program in the country, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), includes companies such as Kraft, Pepsico and Walmart amongst its biggest advocates (source: Why Snap Works, Christopher Bosso). These manufacturers and retailers prey on the less fortunate, making billions of dollars each year by selling UPFs and sweetened beverages to SNAP recipients (three person households making $32,000 or less per year), and they are not about to give that up.

The connection is undeniable. UPFs and sugar are making us sick. 67% of calories consumed by children now come from UPFs. Children as young as 2 are being diagnosed with chronic diseases once believed to be age related. Diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, heart disease, and diabetes. It’s reasons like this that the government, try as they might, can no longer ignore the issue.

A week ago the Agriculture and Health and Human Services announced they are going to look into the connection between disease and UPFs for the first time. The results of their research can impact national guidelines, including school lunches where Dominos pizza and lunchables are currently served (look for their lobbying campaigns to impact the results). 

This past year congress announced the Food Label Modernization Act. Its aim is to update food labels for the first time in 30+ years by making changes such as putting the label on the front of the package and restricting the use of the word “healthy” to describe a food. It’s not enough and we can’t get complacent in allowing them to think they’re solving the problem, because they’re not.

At best they are trying to appease us.

There needs to be a cap on the amount of sugar that retailers are allowed to put into their drinks (one account of a child with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease recalled her drinking a large Slurpee from 7-Eleven which contains 134 grams of sugar. 6x the daily recommended amount!). There needs to be tight regulations on the ingredients that go into these foods and how they’re formulated.

Attention also needs to be paid not just to what is in these UPFs, but what’s being stripped out of them. Vital nutrients, fiber, minerals and vitamins are all absent, and it is these deficiencies in part that are causing the problem.

We’re living in a time when they want you to believe it is more complicated than it is. It’s not. It’s exactly what it looks like. It’s a sickening display of greed, corruption, and incompetence at the highest levels. The only thing sicker than the greed in this country is our population, all of whom our politicians are willing to let suffer in exchange for profits.

Why I Believe Willpower Is Misunderstood

A few weeks ago I came across this article The Company That Defined Dieting Is Sorry It Told Us To Have More Willpower published by the Wall Street Journal. The title of the article is laid above a picture of skinny Oprah from the 80s.

It turns out that the article was just a press release disguised as journalism. Something that has become all too frequent in recent years as the media seems poised to endlessly promote pharmaceutical companies and their drugs.

In this case, it was another promotion for WeGovy. The company that “is sorry” is WeightWatchers, and they want you to know that through a $100 million acquisition they are now able to prescribe “weight loss” drugs to their clients. Oprah’s has shamelessly signed on to promote the new approach in exchange for financial compensation (I guess some people never have enough).

As I read through the article looking for something (anything) related to willpower and found nothing, it made me think about this often controversial topic and the things I’ve experienced and learned when it comes to my own willpower. And since they didn’t talk about it, I thought I would.

You Have It or You Don’t.

Willpower has always been viewed as something you either have or you don’t. Some people are said to have “strong willpower” and others to have “weak willpower.” But willpower is not a have it or don’t proposition. Rather willpower is a skill that is learned over time, and reinforced through daily habits and routines.

People tell me all the time that I have strong willpower. They’re right that I do, but they’re wrong in thinking that I was born with it. It is not intuitive. I have been fortunate to benefit from having a mother with strong willpower, and she had a father with strong willpower. And his willpower was born out of necessity. After suffering a heart attack at age 40 and watching all four of his brothers die early deaths from alcohol abuse, smoking and poor diet he made the necessary changes to make sure that didn’t happen to him.

The intersection of where willpower meets action is misunderstood.

Willpower is not avoiding cookies after dinner, rather it’s not buying cookies to keep in the house. Willpower is not saying no to birthday cake at the office party, it’s not going to the office party in the first place. Willpower is asking for the check before the waiter asks if you want the desert menu.

Willpower is then about repeating these habits over and over again until they become so engrained in you that you don’t even go down the cookie aisle at the grocery store. They become so well known to those around you that you don’t get offered cake anymore (it happened to me). And desert after dinner is saved for celebrating special occasions.

It’s not an all or nothing proposition.

Going cold turkey is a concept that is favored by many and hated by others. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition. If you’re struggling to clean up your diet, completely cutting out all the “bad” stuff (simple sugars, ultra processed foods, high fat foods) will likely lead to failure.

I maintain a clean diet 99% of the time. Exception made for when I travel in which case I allow myself to fully indulge. But something I’ve noticed is that after returning home, I’m unable to dive right back into my clean diet. All the sugar and processed meats and foods I’ve eaten maintain a stronghold on my cravings. If I try to just ignore them, then I feel like shit. It can take me anywhere from 7 - 10 days to wean myself off the bad stuff and back onto the clean stuff.

If you’re someone that has been struggling with their diet for years, multiply that weaning off period by 100. It’s going to take time to cut everything out. It doesn’t mean you don’t have willpower. It means you need to focus on small wins, cutting back a little everyday, accepting that you’re going to take a step back from time to time. The key is to take more steps forward than back. Do not get discouraged, stick to your plan.

Willpower is about developing confidence and clarity in your goals.

It’s the reason that people can express “willpower” for many years and then “relapse.” Something happens in their life that causes them to lose focus, or lose confidence in their ability to stay the course. Their willpower doesn’t go away, but something changed that impacted their ability to harness their willpower. That’s what makes habit and routine so important.

Developing strong habits and routines are essential to maintaining your willpower.

That all brings me to the most important piece of information when it comes to willpower. And that is the development of strong habits and routines. There are two main reasons. The first is the most obvious. Strong habits will help keep you on track. Willpower is like compounding interest in investing, the longer you’re in the game the greater return you’ll see.

The second is less obvious but it is way more important. Strong habits and routines are what allow you to get back on track quickly! Everyone will go off the rails at some point their life (myself included). Work gets stressful. You’re moving. You have to travel a lot for work. You have to take care of a loved one. The world will always conspire to interrupt your routines. They key is to get back as fast as possible. The biggest setbacks don’t happen because you fall off, they happen because you stay off too long!

If you want to learn about habits, how they are formed, and actionable steps you can take, I highly recommend reading The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits, by James Clear. I also suggest reading Essentialism, by Greg McKeown. While not directly about habits, Essentialism provides a framework on how to focus only on what’s its essential to you.

I think that there is a major disservice that is happening right now that has been building for some time. It’s the notion that people are not capable of doing things themselves and they need require unnatural means to achieve what they want. Humans are the strongest and most intelligent species on the planet. Capable of things beyond our wildest imagination. We don’t need drugs to make us feel better or make us lose weight. We have that ability within us. We all do. I want everyone to tap into it.

Lessons Learned Over My Last 5 Years of Investing

Over the last five years I’ve spent a lot of time paying attention to my finances. I received my last W2 paycheck in February 2019, so I’ve have a lot of incentive to. Since that time I’ve survived on money saved and money invested. 

When I first left my job I did’t know much about investing. I did’t know much about the stock market and I had limited exposure to it. Aside from a company 401K (with no match) and the purchase of a 1-bedroom apartment, I had barely any money invested. If it wasn’t for a week long crash course in investing and the market during a vacation with a friend, I would’ve never gotten started.

Over the years since that trip I’ve applied what he taught me to run a mostly successful portfolio. That said, with experience has come a handful of lessons, some of which I’m sharing here.

You have to take your money off the table when you get it. 

The stock market has a genius way of lulling you into thinking you’ve made money (in some cases a little, in some case a lot), and that you will continue to do so forever (as has been the case with the bull market over the last 10+ years, the brief “recession” at the beginning of COVID not included). But it’s important to realize that the only time you make money is when you take some off the table and sell some of your position. Until then it is all at risk. If you’ve sold zero shares, you’ve made zero dollars.

The feeling you’ll encounter is FOMO, missing out on more gains (greed). There’s a great saying I’ve heard multiple times recently.

“Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered.”

To overcome that fear you have to ask yourself two questions and be honest.

1. If you wouldn’t sell some shares at a 50% gain, would you really sell at 60%, 70%? Probably not. If you’re unwilling to sell at 50%, greed has likely set in a you’ve become disillusioned that your stocks will only ever go up.

2. Will you be more satisfied taking your gain or watching your gain turn into a loss? This one is obvious but it’s one that feels like it could never happen to you… until it does. Like it has to me on several different occasions.

It is a much better strategy to take gains you can live with, and wait for the next opportunity.

There will always be an opportunity to make more money.

This is a rule that applies to everything in life, but is particularly true when it comes to finance, investing and business. It’s easy to get excited when presented with an opportunity to make money, but most investment opportunities will come with little to no returns.

I’ve been presented a wide array of business ideas to invest in. An email organizer that’s a plug-in for Gmail. A women’s focused wellness brand. Hotel development. An AI focused relationship management system. I’ve passed on most, and invested in the ones with guaranteed returns (i.e. preferred rates of return in real estate).

Jumping at every opportunity thrown your way is a good way to lose a bunch of money and come unhinged. It’s something I saw at my job. Our inability to pass on growth opportunities (whether they were clearly risky or just didn’t make sense) was the main reason for the companies eventual demise.

When it comes to stocks, we all want to own the next Tesla. But picking Tesla to be a winner is a crap shoot. My friends father who is widely successful, sold all of his position in Tesla before it took off. He had a feeling it would do well (which is why he bought it) but he ultimately cashed in when he thought it was a dud.

It’s important to take some risks in your portfolio, but not every IPO (initial public offering) is going to be successful (in fact if you read this newsletter you’ll see the trend is in fact the opposite). For every Tesla missed, another one will arise. Pay attention for the one that makes the most sense for your portfolio (as Sam Dogen puts it, a company you use, like and trust). 

For every opportunity missed, another one is right around the corner.

When everything is important, nothing is important.

There has been a handful of times in the last five years where I’ve had more than 20 individual stocks in my portfolio. I foolishly believed that I (since I was not working and had the time) could effectively manage a portfolio of this size. The gains in the market from 2018 up until and past the pandemic crash made me believe I was right. But once the bottom started to fall out of many of the companies in my portfolio, I quickly realized I was wrong.

Instead I’ve refocused my strategy and I’ve been focusing on thinning my portfolio down to less than 10 stocks made up of some of the main stays (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon), some diversification (Kimco real estate investment trust, REIT) and mostly the Vanguard ETF VTI. A portfolio this size, with companies I “know” is manageable.

From time to time I’ll pick up a new individual stock that seems poised for gains, but I keep making myself come back to the lesson, when everything is important, nothing is important.

Money is very personal.

This is probably the most important less of them all. It’s something that Morgan Housel talks about in his book The Psychology of Money, and it’s something that Sam Dogen (aka The Financial Samurai) talks about on his blog and in his book Buy This Not That. 

The example Morgan Housel uses is paying for his house in all cash as opposed to taking out a mortgage. Almost anyone you ask will tell you that taking out a mortgage is the right choice, especially in times when interest rates are at historical lows (like they were up until the last couple of years) and the market is returning near double digit average returns. But as Morgan puts it, he just didn’t want the weight of a monthly mortgage payment hanging over him.

I’ve recently had a similar experience. Over the last few months I’ve liquidated 20 - 30% of my stock portfolio to have some extra cash reserves as my girlfriend and I make a move to Colorado. I’m a believer in compounding gains, but in this case I’d rather feel secure knowing the cash is there when we need it, then having to liquidate positions when (if) the market takes a downturn.

The thought of having to sell stocks for bills when the market is not performing is one of the main things that will keep me up at night. Conversely, even if the market takes off, and I have cash on the sideline, I feel good knowing my gains are secure. For sure the 5% return on my cash sitting in a money market fund helps, but I’ve already seen some missing gains on positions sold that I’ve had to learn to accept. 

I’d rather feel secure knowing I have the cash.

The Large Turn Out for Abortion Rights Gives Me Hope For Our Health

The fact that so many people came out to vote in support of abortion rights, especially in Republican strongholds, tells me that when it comes to matters affecting one’s body and is deeply personal, it’s easy to get people motivated. Lack of abortion rights is viewed (in part) as a lack of healthcare. Then why is it that when it comes to matters of health more broadly, we seem stuck in the mud, repeating the same things over and over again?

Nearly 50 million people (17 million households) reported being food insecure in 2022. Millions more would report as food insecure (lacking access to adequate and healthy food necessary to maintain an active life) if they truly understood what healthy food and a balanced meal is. Food insecurity leads to an overconsumption of ultra processed foods and sugary (high calorie) drinks, which has direct links to obesity and chronic disease.

As of 2017 42% of the adult population was obese. Likewise, childhood obesity (nearly 20% as of 2020) is on the rise resulting in diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that had never before been seen in children now being diagnosed in children as young as 2 at an alarming rate.

Chronic disease are becoming more prevalent with the top five causes of death steadily increasing each year. In recent years life expectancy has plateaued and subsequently decreased to its lowest level in decades. Last year infant mortality rose by a statistically significant 3% for the first time in decades (we now lag behind countries like Russia and China).

The opioid epidemic continues to wreak havoc on people and communities throughout the country (you can’t visit any major city without seeing its effects). At least 150,000 people now die each year from drug overdoses. Yet OxyContin and Fentanyl remain legal and frequently prescribed/administered despite the known destruction they have caused (I have multiple friends/family who recently went in for surgery and were given, sometimes forcefully, these drugs).

This is all in spite of spending trillions of dollars each year on healthcare. So what gives? Obviously we’re doing something drastically wrong.

Congress’ answer to all of this is the recently proposed Food Label Modernization Act. Their attempt to update food labels that have not been updated since the 80s / 90s. But what is it really? It’s an attempt to placate and quiet the public and those who are standing up and shouting for change, while protecting the companies responsible for the country’s declining health.

And for the first time (yes, the first time) the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services are considering the impact of ultra processed foods on disease and rates of obesity. It could impact guidelines and the meals served to children in their school lunch programs. Another category where we lag behind other countries, including Mexico. This is work that has already been done, multiple times over, and yet the government agencies want us to believe that this is some novel their doing for us.

Guidelines, recommendations and warning labels only work if people have access to the healthy alternative.

I read an article a couple of weeks ago profiling children diagnosed with non alcoholic fatty liver disease. One of the children recalls regularly consuming a large Slurpee (134 grams of sugar) and a large bag of Cheetos (1,440 calories, 90 grams of fat) every time her aunt brought her to 7-Eleven for some “snacks” when her parents were struggling to put food on the table.

I’d like for someone to explain so I can understand how the Food Label Modernization Act and new guidelines is going to do anything to help this child. It is no coincidence that the rates of obesity amongst the lowest income children versus the highest income children is double. It’s not a choice.

There needs to be limits on the amount of drugs (sugar) that producers are allowed to put into their food. It’s not enough to put it on a label. Ultra processed foods (i.e. Cheetos) are designed to be highly palatable and addictive, encouraging consumers to eat more and more, as the combination of sugar and salt is manufactured to hit that dopamine bliss point.

So the circle goes: family can’t afford or doesn’t have access to healthy foods (aka food deserts) and turns to easily accessible and affordable ultra processed food. Ultra processed food is addictive, affordable and available, so they consume more. And more. Eventually disease ensues. And round it goes.

Powerful opioids such as OxyContin and Fentanyl need to be removed from circulation. Doctors and hospitals should not be allowed to push these drugs on any patient.

It brings me back to my original point (I guess). If we are able to come out in such great numbers (as we should) for abortion rights, then what is it going to take to get us to come out in support of changing food policy, the food system and the healthcare system more generally in this country, to one that actually promotes health instead of undermining it.

We know the food, agriculture, beverage and healthcare industries control the market, but we are the market and therefore we can demand change. Somehow we’ve forgotten that. Without our dollars, they have no dollars and will need to conform to our demands.

Things Take Longer But You Don't Have To Stop Doing Them

Don’t Be Someone That Used To

There’s a certain type of story that makes me cringe when I hear it. It’s the story that starts out with, “I used to…” and ends with an excuse as to why the person doesn’t do “something” anymore. Sometimes it’s health related, other times it’s work or lifestyle. But regardless of what it is, whenever I hear it I want to shake the person and say “don’t say that, you can still do it!”

“I used to play tennis, but my knee started bothering me.”

“I used to bring my lunch to work, but now my commute is too long and I don’t have the time.”

“I used to love my job, but now it’s too stressful.”

If your knee is bothering you, figure out how to strengthen it. If you’re short on time, wake up earlier. And if you no longer love you job, start looking for a new one.

There’s one story in particular I remember. 

I was at the gym earlier this year when I overheard two older men having a discussion. The one guy was telling his friend that it was his first day back working out. He had been going regularly, and in pretty good shape, but then the pandemic shut everything down. In the 2+ years since, he, in his words, “had done nothing, and put on 25 pounds.”

I just sat by my locker listening, wondering if he heard himself speaking. 2+ years of doing nothing. What’s the excuse?

Things Just Take Longer

Most people fall into the same trap as they get older. They believe that because of their advanced age that there are just certain things that they can no longer do. People say it all the time. First they state their age. “I’m 72.” Then they tell you the thing they can’t do anymore as a result. “I can’t run anymore.”

I’ve come to the realization that if you want to continue to be active as you age, you can. It just means that things are going to take longer. Speed doesn’t matter (in fact I would argue that as you get older you realize that the best results are achieved slowly).

Running at 72 doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means you’re not going to beat your personal best.

Going on the 5 mile hike you always loved to do is possible, but you’re going to be out on the trail a little bit longer.

If you want to go to the gym it’s going to take longer to put your shoes on, drive to the gym, and get through a full workout. But you can do it.

Having A Longevity Mindset

Having a longevity mindset means never stopping. It means catching yourself before you become the person who used to. Longevity is all about extending quality years of your life. In order to do that you need to keep going.