The Behavior of Change

Perception is reality

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Food is food. Medicine is medicine. Poison is poison. 

Let’s not confuse things. 

It’s not even that food is medicine it’s that all this other shit is fucking poison. Framing food as medicine creates skepticism because people already have a perception of what medicine is, and it’s not food. Let’s let medicine be medicine. Food be food. And poison be poison. And clear up any confusion. 

See, I do think medicine has the power to heal. In specific cases there are medicinal therapies that can help. But mostly, healing doesn’t come from eating real food, it comes from the elimination of poisonous ones. 

It would kind of be like telling a smoker that oxygen heals. So they stop smoking, stop inhaling CO2 and nicotine and all of the other harmful substances in cigarettes, only breathing oxygen, and cite oxygen as the medicine. But it’s not. The poisonous cigarette was the culprit. And when they stopped that their body began to heal. 

Or telling someone who drinks soda that water is medicine. It’s not. If a soda drinker replaces their soda with water, the water has no healing benefits. The elimination of liquid sugar called soda is the reason they begin to heal. 

Food is medicine. Sounds nice. Hippocrates said it a million years ago. Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Yes, food has vitamins, minerals, macros, that you need, but are they really healing? If that’s all the stuff you already need, then is it healing or maintaining?

Food is medicine feels complicated. It feels like extra work. Medicine not only already has its own perception about what it is, but it also has its own perception about what it means to take medicine. And I don’t think food should be mixed up in that. 

I also think that by emphasizing real food as medicine it lets the food industry off the hook for the toxic substances that it creates. It doesn’t put enough emphasis on the illness that their products create. It shifts the focus away from their poison and onto eating healthy food, and I don’t think that anything will change until the products that they make are banned or severely limited. 

Recently there was that stupid debate going on about Fruit Loops Canada versus Fruit Loops America and the ingredients in each. RFK Jr, someone I actually like, was arguing that we need to make our Fruit Loops like that of Canada’s with less toxic ingredients, but that misses the point. The issue is not what’s in Fruit Loops, the issue is that Fruit Loops exists as a cheap, accessible, and easy choice for consumers. Another inane debate that’s been going on is people trying to push McDonalds to go back to using beef tallow for their french fry oil instead of the seed oil they switched to many years ago. The issue isn’t the oil. The issue is that McDonalds, and garbage like it, are allowed to exists as cheap, accessible, and abundant options for people.

Ban the poison and fix our health.

To avoid the perils of the products manufactured by the ultra processed food industry requires a heightened state of awareness and vigilance. It requires preparedness to head out into the world and not fall victim to these substances. For my finances birthday we rented a few lanes at the local bowling alley. We had a 5:30 - 8 pm slot. Too early to eat dinner, too late to wait to be done. I knew I was going to be hungry, and I knew the only options at the bowling alley would be highly processed and refined poison devoid of anything even resembling food. So before walking out of the door I stuffed a piece of steak and a 1/4 of an avocado into my mouth. I figured at the very least it would take the edge off, and hopefully prevent me from indulging in bowling alley food until I got home. 

I ended up eating one slice of bowling alley pizza. Not terrible, and I did enjoy it, but I was able to avoid the french fries, chicken fingers, and three varieties of birthday cakes that her friends brought. But how many people have the time, awareness, or dedication to do that? My senses are not many, and understandably so. 

One other lady that joined us to bowl also didn’t indulge in any food. She’s training to do some mountaineering this winter and looking to lose a few pounds. 

But we were in the minority, and when cheap toxic food is the only option, most people are going to have a hard time turning it down. 

Timing the market

To understand why you can’t time the market, take the simple case of United Healthgroup. Previously trading at an all time high of $630 per share, is now (at the time of this writing) down to $489 in the weeks following the murder of their CEO, Brian Thompson. Down over 20% in a few short weeks. Unpredictable and therefore impossible to time. That of course is an extreme example, but I think the extreme examples are the ones that provide the most clarity because it’s hard to dispute the facts. COVID, when the market dropped 40% in a matter of days, is another extreme but important example. You can’t time the market.

Peloton growing too fast and being unable to keep up with demand, followed by the death of a child using the treadmill, coupled with the death of an actor using a peloton on a TV show, crashing the stock to an all time low is another clear cut example. None of that could be predicted. Peloton’s stock has never recovered.

Over the last few years, with this lesson in mind, I’ve been selling off my individual holdings, and reinvesting them slowly into ETFs. The major one in my portfolio being VTI. While an ETF like VTI will swing with the market, the swings will be far less volatile than say what happened with UNH. After COVID a number of my stocks went from all time highs, to all time lows, and after seeing my money dry up, I realized I had learned my lesson and that I needed to do what I can to prevent that from happening again in the future.

Some of the individual stocks I got out of, like Uber and Netflix, went on to rebound to new highs, and in theory I lost out on that upside. But gains in the stock market are only made when you sell. Otherwise they are just unrealized. And it’s very easy to get enamored with your “unrealized” gains and have them slip out from under you without you even noticing. Separating your emotional buy-in for a stock is an important part of the game. Not getting too greedy is just as important.

If you want to win the market, then you need to believe in long term gains. Sticking it out for the long term and putting your money into ETFs that provide the least amount of volatility and the most amount of stability. Another small bonus is the dividend that comes with most (if not all) ETFs. Use those dividends to reinvest in the security and I think you’ll have a winning strategy you can’t go wrong with.

Proud of myself

I’m proud of myself. And not because of doing the hard things or working hard. Working hard and doing the hard thing has always come naturally to me. As naturally as working hard can. I’m sure there’s a trauma reason behind it. 

But no, I’m proud of myself for doing the small things, taking my time, and not pushing myself too hard. 

I went skiing the other day and my boot was killing me. Normally I would’ve just kept going, not wanting to waste time stopping. Not wanting to be a bitch having to stop to fix my boot. It’s skiing, isn’t your boot supposed to hurt? But instead, I stopped. Took my boots off and relaxed enough to fix my boot, relieve the pain, and even write myself this note. 

Even going skiing was an accomplishment for me. My in laws were coming in that same day and I still had a lot of things I wanted to before they got in. The house needed to be cleaned. There were a couple of pieces of furniture I wanted to pick up. Some minor groceries I wanted to get for them. In a past life I would’ve put my desire to go skiing and be outside for a few hours aside, and decided that it was more important to get every little last thing done. And then for the next few days I would’ve suffered as I had ignored that calling to get outside. Which would’ve been a far worse result than if I didn’t get everything done on time at the house. 

But this time I decided to take a chance. To go skiing and see what happens. See if I can get everything done anyway. See if in the long run the time outside, listening to my inner voice, outweighed rushing to get everything done and stressing myself out. Like I said, in so many words, I’ve always been good at stressing myself out and pushing through. Relaxing and taking time for me has never been a skill of mine. 

But not this time. I think I’ve started to feel a shift. Figuring out that balance is more important than nonstop work.

Follow up note… it worked. I got everything done, and had an awesome day on the mountain. 

Sleep

Sleep is the most important thing. If you don’t get good sleep, nothing else will matter. You can go a few nights with bad sleep and get by, but those days will eventually catch up, and you won’t make much progress during that time. In fact you’ll likely regress.

That’s why everything you do should be with sleep as the priority. What foods should I eat and what foods should I avoid? What drinks should I have and what drinks should I avoid? Should I back off my exercise or push hard? What should my technology hygiene look like? What should I engage with and what should I avoid? How’s stress impacting my sleep and how can I improve it?

Because the thing is, that while some of this will require short term sacrifices, the benefits of quality sleep will very quickly begin to outweigh them. Your body will begin to heal and transform. Your mind will be clear. Your relationships will improve. It will be easier to make better food choices. It will be easier to be active. Nothing in life escapes the impact of poor sleep. And everything improves with good sleep. 

Health

I want to be healthy so that I can participate fully in life. Health as a stand alone has never been the focus for me. Health has always been a means to an end. To be able to wake up and say yes to any invitation that comes my way. Yes I want to take that trip. Yes I want to climb that mountain. Yes, let’s go to the beach. Yes, yes, yes.

I want to wake up and feel good. And to me that’s health. And it’s not possible without health. I fear how many people don’t wake up feeling that way. How many people have felt poor for so long that they no longer know how poor they feel. Often worse. It upsets me. 

Death Penalty

Something just dawned on me that should’ve seemed obvious before. While reading Judgment at Tokyo, I read about how the lead judge of the trial agonized over sentencing any of the accused war criminals to the death penalty. He had never sent anyone to death before. 

Which made me realize, and ask myself the question: if a judge sentences someone to death, doesn’t that make them a murderer? Even if the accused is convicted of heinous crimes, doesn’t that make the judge equally as heinous?

I know the idea is to serve justice and protect society, but it’s kind of like the abortion question. An abortion is killing a baby. You might agree with the procedure or not, but at the end of it, a life has ended. Same goes for the accused. 

You may or may not agree with it, but at the end of the day, when someone is executed for a crime, the people involved have taken a life. 

The Behavior of Change

Thoughts and download from the week.

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At a minimum, there’s two things you can learn from other people. What to do and what not to do.

Sports

I like watching endurance sports like the UFC (MMA), cycling, or even motorcycle racing like MotoGP. To me these are the hardest sports because they require the athlete to remain focused on their technique over long periods of time, well after fatigue and pain have set in. And I think that dynamic adds a different level to the athlete and the sport that you don’t get from other sports. 

I also like watching them because it makes you realize what the human body is capable of. When two UFC fighters go five hard rounds all bloodied and battered, it makes you realize just how far you really can push it. 

When cyclists race for the finish line on day 21 of the Tour de France, or when a MotoGP rider all of a sudden finds a new best lap time as the races comes to the end, you really understand what it means to push it. 

And I try to use that in my normal life to do shit I don’t want to do. Whether that’s working out or sitting down to write, I ask myself what one of those guys would do if they were me. And of course it always makes me do it.

I also love these sports because they are international. You get to see the best of the best from around the world, representing their country, their history, and their culture. That also brings a different element to the sport. 

And I guess lastly, it’s that they’re individual sports, supported by a dedicated team of people, which allows you to get to know the athlete on a far more intimate level. And for me, it’s a lot easier to get behind an individual than it is a team. 

We hold the answers that we seek. 

You can have a bad idea without all of your ideas being bad. I think that’s the trap. Believing that because you made a mistake you’re just going to keep making mistakes, so, instead of trusting your gut, you start to distrust it. And, the result is an inability to make progress. Because you get stuck questioning everything your gut is telling you to do. 

Or, you’re just too afraid. You’re too scared and can’t see how an action plays out on the other side, and you second guess yourself. You delay gratifying that urge, you get stuck in delay.

That was one of the most profound things I’d heard in a long time. I had just begun toying with the idea that being able to follow my intuition would be the key to my success. The key to living a happy and fruitful life. But I did not have anything to base it on other than my own thoughts and experiences. 

I found, simply enough, that on days when I was able to lead with my gut, that my days were happier, they were more care free, and they went smoothly. It was a feeling for which I had no concrete examples, I just knew I felt better. 

Jen and I went out to dinner one night with friends. There business partner who happened to be visiting from Italy joined us. Over dinner Jen and I got to know him, and we learned what a successful and intelligent man he was. 

At one point in the evening we were all talking when he leaned in and said, “I’ve found that the most successful people I know, don’t spend a lot of time in delay. If they want a boat, they buy a boat. If they want to paint their house green, they paint their house green.”

It was so profound to me because in that moment I found context in what I had been feeling and unable to describe. And it was coming out of the mouth of someone who, in a short amount of time, I had gained a lot of respect for. 

Delay is the word that I grapple with. Not wanting to delay, but not wanting to do something stupid. Or do something I’ll later regret. But I’ve found that the only way to ever really know is to do it. And hope for the best. 

On the evening before Jen and I’s first trip together, she asked me what I was writing in my journal. I said, jokingly, “I hope it goes well.” We both laughed hard, and that’s been an inside joke for us ever since. But it’s also kind of been a motto we live by, or at least try to live by. 

“I hope it goes well” kind of sums up the only expectation you can set. Because it can not go well, and sometimes it doesn’t, but, with the right intentions, most of the time it does. 

Which comes back to the initial thought. You can make mistakes without everything you do becoming a mistake. Even if you’ve made a few mistakes. I think there’s always a path waiting if you’re willing to silence the noise around you and really tune into your gut. 

You have to clean up the environment around you.  You have to be aware of what you’re consuming. And you have to filter through the distractions, and eliminate the ones that don’t serve your purpose.

Following our intuition for life is the thing that I think we’re missing the most, and we’re more scared than ever to do it. Mainly, I think, because our environment is so littered with garbage at every turn, that we’re just not able to tune in to ourselves. 

Judging

The thing I judge people the most harshly about is not doing the things they want. And it’s probably because that’s when I’m the harshest critic of myself. When I think about something I want to do and then don’t follow through on it. Or find myself a year later, two years later, three years later, still talking about that thing and never having done it. That is for sure the thing that pisses me off the most, and it’s the thing that can keep me trapped in my head the most.

Because when I’m not acting on something I want, or something I want to do or try, that’s when I feel the most stuck. So, when I see it or hear it from other people, it causes the biggest reaction from me. Because I don’t want them to sit with that stuck feeling, the way I have so many times.

I know how awful that stuck feeling is, and I also know how liberating it is, and euphoric even, when you finally do the thing you’ve been thinking about and wanting to do. In my experience, it doesn’t always mean going full fledged and making it happen right away even. Sometimes just exploring the idea more fully, and allowing it to spread its wings, going from a thought to a possibility, can be enough. 

There’s been times when there’s something I want to do that’s eating away at me, and then when I go and actually explore it, I realize I didn’t want it in the first place. But I needed to do the work so I could clear my mind. 

I just feel like too many people with the means to change their life never do. And they sit stuck with what ifs in their mind that were never given the chance to become possibilities. And I think a life spent that way is the ultimate waste, and the saddest. 

Stop saying this is the best time to be alive.

Who’s it the best time for? Not the people in Gaza. Not the people in Syria. Not the people in Ukraine. Not the people in North Korea. Not the people in Venezuela. Not the people in much of Africa. Not the nearly 5 million innocent people who have been killed either by direct or indirect warfare in the middle east since 9/11. Not the hundred of thousands of homeless and drug addicted people living in the richest country in the world. Not the 50+ million people who don’t have enough nutritious food to be healthy, stress free, and prosperous. And not the many more who suffer on the fringe both here in America and around the world, who’s storied we don’t even know about because they aren’t dire enough to make the news.

So who is it the best time to be alive for? The people that say it. The people that have the privilege of believing that. 

Perhaps it is the best time for information. The best time for resources. The best time for medicine. The best time for innovation. But despite that, there remains a significant portion of the population, the overwhelmingly majority in fact, who’s not the best time to be alive.

So again, please stop saying it is the best time to be alive because there are billions of people around the world who would argue against that, and be right. 

In fact I would argue that for anyone who’s conscious, awake, aware, and paying attention, that it is actually the worst time to be alive. To be able to see so clearly the possibilities and watch how they are undermined and squandered at every turn by greedy, maniacal, and heartless people with zero morals, ethics, or integrity.

Yes, for those of us paying attention, there has never been a worse time to be alive.

Two random thoughts

If you start with the assumption that everyone is actually good, then you can start to try and figure out where they went wrong that made them not so. But if you start with the assumption that everyone is bad, then you automatically dismiss them, and there’s nothing to try and figure out. 

News is actually just gossip. They’re just telling you what someone did, or what some country did, or what some group did, the same way a friend, colleague, or family member might. They’re not telling you why or even interested in knowing why, the same way a friend, colleague, or family member wouldn’t. They’re only interested in spreading the gossip and hijacking your attention and your emotions.

Big Time Cheat Meal (for me anyways)

Left over pad Thai noodles (this is the third meal I’ve gotten out of one order, and each time I’ve eaten more than I’ve wanted to. It could’ve easily been 4 or 5 meals, but it’s hard not to over indulge pad Thai noodles, which is the reason I typically just stay away).

180 grams of slow cooked whole chicken to make sure I fill out, because noodles don’t fill me.

Two handfuls of broccoli, and 1 handful of raw red cabbage, to make sure that I wash all this down with adequate amounts of fiber.

A Messy Salad

Avocado, raw red onion, raw red cabbage, tomato, blue cheese stuffed olives (3), pickle (1), strawberries (3), rosemary honey cooker beets (1/2), cucumber, spinach.

Two cans of wild, sustainable sardines (36 total gram of protein).

Dressed with dijon mustard, medium spiced locally made salsa, drizzle olive oil, blackberry balsamic vinegar, bourbon balsamic vinegar (both vinegars locally made), and 3 generous pinches of salt

Summer Salad

Sorry it’s posting in the winter.

I went for a challenging trail run this morning. This was the first of many meals I’d eat throughout the day.

In reality, this was the fourth thing I consumed. One, a piece of dark chocolate before my run. Two, an RX bar, dark chocolate chip. Three, a Colorado Palisades peach 🍑 that dripped all over me on the car ride home.

But, this salad:

Arugula, red Russian kale, and radish from our garden

Locally grown tomato, cucumber, carrot, red cabbage, red onion, and celery

Locally raised pastured chicken

Strawberries and almonds

I also used some blackberry and bourbon balsamic vinegar bottled here locally by a chef

Tasty, tasty dish, dressed with generous amounts of salt, olive oil, balsamic glaze, mustard, and locally bottle salsa

Yum yum yum

Sundays are for BBQing

This past Sunday we did the BBQ thing. Red peppers and zucchini tossed in olive oil and salt and charred on the grill. Grilled white onion. And homemade beef burgers, mixed with spices and blue cheese. Almost everything on our dishes was local (except for the cheese and sauces). The sourdough bread we used as buns is from a local bakery an hour or so from our house.

Everything tastes better when it comes from somewhere close and is made in small batches. Less processing, less ingredients, more flavor, more nutrients.

I love a good burger BBQ day.

The Big Salad

Mixed greens

Black rice

Roasted chickpeas

Avocado

Raw carrot

Celery

Tomato

Olives

Raw red onion

Sardines (1 can)

Olive juice

Olive oil

Lunch: Salmon and a side salad

Wild sockeye salmon (bought frozen and thawed), pan fried for 3 minutes per side on medium heat. Simple seasoning, olive oil and salt

Side salad: mixed greens, apple, olives, grated Parmesan, roasted romanesco, oil, vinegar, and salt

Bowl of yogurt

Strauss European Style yogurt is my favorite. My mom and I discovered it on a trip in Wyoming at a cool little breakfast spot. Luckily my local grocer, Natural Grocers, sells it.

6 spoonfuls of yogurt

Almonds, walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts

1 date, 2 prunes

1/2 tangerine

Sprinkle of chia seeds

Splash of homemade almond milk

Perfect way, to start the day.

The Behavior of Change

Thoughts and download from the week.

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“Most frustration comes from not having a plan, or from not being open to changing when the plan you have fails.”

Eating Late

Every night it’s a struggle to not eat a snack after dinner and before bed. I know how much better I sleep, and therefore how much better I feel the next day when I don’t have a late night treat, and yet I fight myself on it every night.

Food is so good, it makes it so hard. It feels so right at the time, but I immediately regret it because I know I’m not going to sleep as well as I could have if I just listened to that voice saying “don’t do it,” “you don’t need it.” Instead of listening to the voice that says, “who cares,” “you deserve it.”

I used to think that if I just had something healthy and light, like a bowl of fruit, or something satiating, like protein powder mixed with soy milk, that it would be okay. But it’s not. It’s better than cake, or cookies, or ice cream, but it’s still not good.

Often times I rationalize eating something by convincing myself that I didn’t have enough calories that day, or enough of a certain macro, usually protein, to cover me for my workout. But it’s really just that, a rationalization to eat when I don’t need or want to.

If you’re reading this and thinking “wow this guy is tormented by food.” You’d be right. It wasn’t always like this for me. It started when I started training for triathlons a few years ago. Back then I always felt like I couldn’t consume enough calories to keep up with the long and hard days of training. There was no way, without a proper nutrition plan, which I didn’t have, to stay on top of the calories and macros I needed. As a result I always felt hungry and depleted. So I began over analyzing my food, and questioning what I was consuming with every bite. Even though I’ve been removed from that training style for a couple of years now, it’s taken time to undo that programming.

Tracking my food for 6 months helped. I learned that I was over-consuming fats, and under-consuming proteins (the latter of which I think was contributing to the feeling of being depleted). Balancing my diet, getting closer to the right amount of macros, has helped repair my relationship with food, but I know there is still more work to do.

But, no matter how much my that relationship improves, I doubt it will ever be easy. Because really, aren’t we all tormented by food in this country? Isn’t that why 70 percent of the population is either overweight or obese? And why everyone is always trying to lose weight and failing? I don’t think you can live in this country and not be tormented by food. Food in this country is available in endless abundance, it’s accessible everywhere you turn, and it’s extremely affordable. There is always an opportunity to shove something delicious in your mouth. Not something nutritious, but something delicious. Something ultra-processed, loaded with sugar, and of low quality, actually stripped of its nutrition. Something that tastes good, feels good, and hits all those sensory pleasure zones in your brain. No, we all struggle with it.

A rancher at a regenerative agriculture conference I went to said it best, “our addiction to convenience is killing us.”

So I wage the daily battle against food. Some days I win, some days I lose. I just try to string together more winning days than losing ones. Staying away from ultra processed foods, foods loaded with added sugar, fat, and sodium.

If there’s one thing that The Comfort Crisis brought to light for me, it’s that in this modern world you need to be actively fighting back the comforts that are all around us and making us sick. You can’t take a day off.

It’s an unfortunate thing, but if we want to achieve and maintain our health, it is going to require work, because the environment in this country doesn’t support a healthy lifestyle. It’s on you to create one for yourself.

10,000 Steps

I think 10,000 steps, when combined with a diet rich in whole foods and devoid of processed foods and added sugar, is actually a good number to strive for that can make you healthy and keep you there. The problem I see is that getting to 10,000 steps in a given day is really hard. I like to think that I’m very active. I workout for a minimum of one hour per day. I don’t have a desk job that keeps me tied to a chair for 8 hours or more. I spend 3 - 5 hours per days standing in my kitchen cooking meals and cleaning up after them. I walk my dog 2 - 3 times per day. On most days I do some type of yard work, that might include mowing the lawn, watering our flower and vegetable beds, or weeding. And still, most days, I don’t even come close to 10,000 steps. In fact, the Garmin watch I recently bought came set with a daily step goal of 7,222 (no idea where that number comes from), and I rarely even hit that number. The only time I hit this number is if I go for a run or a hike. 

But I do recognize that on days when I hit that 7,000 number, or even better yet, I get up and over that 10,000 step number, I feel better. The difference is noticeable. My energy levels are better. My mood is better. I eat better. I sleep better. Everything is better. I’m just not convinced that 10,000 steps is a realistic figure for 99 percent of the population. For most of us, getting enough steps in would require a gargantuan effort. But I’m also not sure what is, or what other metric might be that could have the same benefits as 10,000 steps, but also be achievable.

No One Size… Many Sizes

We say there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to diet and exercise. That each of us are unique, and what works for you might not work for me. And what works for me, might not work for you. And that’s true, but we need to go one level deeper. Because, unfortunately, it’s even more complex than that.

What works for you is going to change throughout various times in your life. What works when stress is low, probably won’t work when stress is high. What worked when you were 25, doesn’t work when you’re 30, 35, or 40. What works when you’re catching a full night of Zzzzs, doesn’t work when your baby is waking you up multiple times per night. What works when you’re home, might be hard to replicate on the road.

That’s why, beyond any diet or exercise advice, you need to be vigilant about which situation you find yourself in, and adapt to meet it. You need to dial into the signals that your body is sending you.

Someone changes their life by going on the ketogenic diet, but after 6 months, they suddenly aren’t feeling well. It’s not working, and they’re constantly craving something sweet. Maybe it’s time to start incorporating some fruit. Or they’ve become tired of eating so much meat. Maybe it’s time to start eating more fish.

Or they always worked out in the morning, but now they start work earlier, and they have a longer commute, both of which are cutting into their morning workout. Can they wake up a little bit earlier to get in a workout? Is there time during lunch? At the end of the day? Instead of exercising 5x per week, can they squeeze in 3? Something, anything, just to keep the momentum and build on the habit.

There are so many examples, so many ways life is going to interrupt your plan, and I think that’s the problem that a lot of people face. They are unable to recognize why their routine is no longer effective, and rather than investigate why and make some changes, they throw the whole plan away and regress back to baseline, or worse, below it. 

I think it’s very important to realize first that what’s going to work for you is specific to you. But second that you’re going to need to stay on top of it and manage it throughout different times in your life. The way I like to think about it is using a golf analogy (I don’t golf, but it works). I like to always stay as close to the pin as possible, so it’s never too hard to make my putt. What do I mean?

Let’s say I go on vacation where I’m sure to indulge in food I wouldn’t normally eat. Well I’ll try and keep at least one meal per day, but usually two, close to my normal diet when I’m home. This way, when I do get home, my routine hasn’t drifted too far off, and it makes it easier to ease back into my normal diet.

Let’s say that I have family visiting, and working out for 60 - 90 minutes isn’t possible without looking like I’m offending my guests. Rather than completely skipping my workout, I might just put together a 30 minute workout that keeps the routine and momentum alive for when my family leaves and I have my time back.

I’m constantly thinking about how I need to adapt my plan to fit the current situations in my life, always keeping the focus on staying as close to the pin as possible. Consistency is the key. Consistency is where progress is built. Figure out what you need to do to stay and consistent and not let life interrupt your plan.

Senate Testimony on the Health Crisis in this Country

I listened to Brigham Buehler, Casey Means, and Calley Means all on Joe Rogan talking about the testimony they gave in front of the Senate discussing the growing health crisis in this country. All three of these guests expressed some level of gratitude that they were able to present their case and lay out the facts about why and how we’ve gotten into such a mess. But the one thing I didn’t hear from any of them was anger or disdain for the fact that we even had to have a testimony to begin with. That no one that sits in the Senate has any idea about what’s going on in this country. That they are so unaware, or at least claim to be, of the fact that toxic food, plastics, and prescription drugs are murdering people in this country. They needed to hear it from a panel of experts.

Perhaps my view is biased because health, diet, food, exercise, longevity, and health span, are all things that I think about and read about on a daily basis. But holy shit, the health crisis in this country is the biggest issue we face as a nation, with ripple effects throughout every aspect of our lives. And the members of the senate don’t have a clue as to what’s going on, and yet they are the ones voting on bills, policies, and funding that directly impact the trajectory of this epidemic.

Maybe I don’t know how government and politics works, but my assumption would be that the people leading the country should know a little bit about what’s going on in the country before they get to lead it. I question how much these members actually pay attention. How many of them actually read. How they spend their free time, or any of their time, because time and time again, they are fucking clueless.

Perhaps it’s a product of the fact that some politicians have been politicians for decades. Decades! Spending their time campaigning, going to parties, and kissing the assess of the people that give them money. It’s outrageous and it’s becoming harder and harder to accept the extreme level of incompetence that exists in our government.

Three good podcast episodes

Joe Rogan and Diane Boyd - Diane K. Boyd is a wildlife biologist who has devoted decades to studying wolves. She is the author of "A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery."

Joe Rogan and Israel Adesanya - Joe sits down with Israel Adesanya, a mixed martial artist competing in the Middleweight division of the UFC. He is the subject of the documentary "Stylebender," available now.

Peter Attia and Anne Lembke - #321 – Dopamine and addiction: navigating pleasure, pain, and the path to recovery | Anna Lembke, M.D.

Establishing a new political party

The Health Party

I want to start a new political party called The Health Party, whose whole mission will be to discuss current events and policy decisions purely from the lens of personal and public health.

I think everyone would agree that their health, and the health of their loved ones, is their number one priority above everything else. That everything we do, is done with the survival of ourselves and those we love in mind. So, with that in mind, the idea is to analyze current events and policy decisions to determine how they are impacting our health, and choose where we want to throw the weight of our support, based on this idea.

For instance. There’s a new Farm Bill [link] that’s going to get passed this year. In that bill will be billions of dollars that the government is going to pay farmers. Currently, all of the money will go to subsidizing conventional farming. Farms that grow rows and rows, acres and acres, of commodity crops like wheat, seed, grain, corn, and potatoes. These farmers all spray the food they grow with endless amounts of insecticides, fungicide, herbicide, and any other type of “side” you can imagine, as they prep their fields for planting, during the growing season, and while harvesting. Not only does the food get it, but because of their proximity to these chemicals, the farmers and farmhands are also exposed.

So, when considering our health and the health of those around us, should we continue to subsidize these farms? The answer is obviously no. No, we do not want to continue to subsidize growing methods that produce food that is killing us. No, we don’t want to continue to subsidize food that is used to make sugars, like high fructose corn syrup, ultra-processed foods, and to feed animals raised on feed lots (CAFOs [link]). No, that is not where we want to spend our money. Our tax payer money.

But, we should do something with the money. So, should we use it to incentivize those farmers to begin transitioning to healthier farming methods, like regenerative agriculture? A method of farming that has been proven to grow healthier and more humanely raised foods, that can heal the land and heal the population. Yes. We know the harm that pesticides and conventional farming practices have on the land and our health, so we should use that money to begin to transition away from them.

I think it can be that simple.

I read an article the other day that said the estimated cost to transition from conventional farming to regenerative farming globally is between $200 - $450 billion. But that same article also stated that it will be hard to make that transition because farmers have not been able to secure the funds they need to transition, which is one of the main struggles that farmers face. Obtaining required capital from banks and other financial institutions. So they’re stuck, unable to change. 

If we move that $70 billion in the farm bill that is currently ear marked to subsidize conventional growers, and give it to farmers that are trying to improve, then we’ll already be 15 - 35 percent of the way there (depending on what end of the estimate you believe).

I think when policy, bills, and current events are analyzed purely from a personal health perspective that almost all of them will be that easy.

I hope you join.

Sincerely,

The Health Party.

Fruit and Veggie Pulp Chips

My girlfriend has been juicing a lot recently, which extracts a lot of the fruit or veggies nutrients and leaves behind excess pulp (fiber) that usually goes to waste.

We’re always looking for ways to reduce waste, so this week she used the pulp and made these veggie chips.

She added spices, soy sauce, and ground flax seed to the pulp, and then formed it in to chip shapes, and placed them in the dehydrator for 12 hours.

We woke up to these healthy, tasty, and crispy chips.

The Behavior of Change

Thoughts and download from the week.

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To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive - Robert Louis Stevenson

Doing what’s easy and rationalizing

Never mind the fact that it’s taking me away from the thing I actually want to do, which is read my book. Never mind the fact that I never feel nearly as good after 30 minutes on my phone as I do after 30 minutes of reading. My ability to rationalize, and my desire to do what’s easy, keeps me from reading, and encourages me to pick up my phone instead.

Reading, my brain tells me, is unproductive. Reading, will not lead to any tangible success or achievement. My phone, by contrast, holds all the tools I need to be productive. I can research an idea. Search for a hike. Write down notes. Edit videos. Get caught up on email. Check in on the market. My phone, my brain tells me, will help me achieve my goals, while reading is just procrastination.

This is an example of the back talk that goes on in my head when that little voice, my intuition, tells me what I need, and my programming tells me what I “should” (that bad word) do instead.

It doesn’t happen with just reading. It happens when that little voice starts yapping “go workout, you’ll feel better,” and my brain says, “nah, let’s eat.” It happens with writing. “Write it down later, you’ll remember.” With watering and cleaning up the garden. With stopping for gas. Or going to the store. “Let’s do ______ (anything else) instead.”

I started reading a new book this week. The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. She calls this internal dialogue your censor. In the War of Art, Steven Pressfield calls it The Resistance. I call it rationalization and doing what feels easy. I’ve determined that a succesful and happy life lies in the ability to recognize when rationalizing versus acting. It lies in the ability to listen to my intuition, that first voice, and ignore the resistance, that second voice. And that’s what I’ve been working on doing.

But it’s not easy, and it doesn’t always work.

For weeks my intuition had been telling me to go do a float. And for weeks I’d been telling it no, we don’t need it, we’re fine how we are. I’ve notice it’s usually the thing I’m resisting the most that I need the worst, and success relies on identifying resisting what I need. That turned out to be the case with my float, but unfortunately I let it get to critical levels, brain fog that impacted my productivity and mood, before finally making an appointment.

Sure as shit, the float was exactly what was needed, and I came out of it feeling mentally clear and physically rejuvenated. Why had I resisted going for so long and ignore that nagging voice? Why do I continue to lack the confidence to immediately act on what my mind and body’ are telling me to do? Why do we as humans go against the things that we know to be true? It’s such an odd thing to me. We know, and ignore.

We know what’s good for us when it comes to diet, drugs, drinking, exercise, relationships, work, stress, and yet more often than not, we ignore it, and do the opposite. We know how much better we will feel if we do these things, but we don’t. We remember the last time we did this things how good it felt, but we still don’t. We know, then we rationalize, then we ignore, and do what’s easy instead.

A reminder about other peoples expectations

When I’m stressing about situations that involve other people and their expectations of me, I try to relax my nerves by thinking about how I would feel if the roles were reversed.

A recent example included a fellow classmate in a kettlebell class I’m taking. During class everyone was given a partner. We were assigned to watch our partner (this was via zoom) do a Turkish get up, and make mental notes of what they did well, and where there were opportunities for improvement. After class we were tasked with sharing these observations with one another via our group text.

Immediately after class the group chat blew up with everyone sharing their feedback. A ping of anxiety rushed through me. Fuck, I forgot what I wanted to tell him. I remembered thinking that a few moves on his way up could’ve been tighter, and that the way down looked good. But I couldn’t remember in enough detail to actually be helpful, and it started to freak me out. I was new to this group, I didn’t want to be a bad partner and appear as though I hadn’t been paying attention.

I couldn’t remember what I wanted to tell my partner, and it was eating away at me.

After an hour or so of letting it consuming me, I decided to turn the tables. I asked myself, how would I feel if I didn’t get any feedback? Would I feel let down and like my partner didn’t care? Would I be mad, angry, or want my partner to be upset about it? Or, would I assume that, like me, he’s just bad at taking mental notes, or didn’t get a great look at the screen, or some other reason why he had nothing to share, and it wouldn’t bother me? I realized it was the latter, and that I needed to stop worrying.

About a year ago my brother rented a house in upstate New York. He was there with his family, wife and three kids. The house was on a lake, and while everyone around them was out enjoying the water on canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards, the house he rented had nothing. But he saw that his neighbor did. So, one day he went over, knocked on the door with his three kids and asked if he could borrow a kayak and a couple of paddle boards. To his surprise the gentleman that answered the door, an older man, said “Absolutely. We bought these for our grandkids but they never come over. Use them for as long as you want. Make yourself at home.” So they did.

For the week they were there they used his water crafts.

After he returned home he wanted to do something nice for the neighbor, but he didn’t know what. He decided to send them a hand written thank you note, along with a picture of his kids on the lake using their watercrafts. We were talking one night and he asked me, “do you think that’s enough?”

I thought for a minute and then I said, “Well, put yourself in his shoes. How would you feel if you got a card and a couple of cute pictures? Would that be enough for you?”

“I never thought about it that way,” he said, “It would.” I could even sense a smile come through the phone as he reversed roles and thought about himself in this guys shoes.

As humans we have a tendency to overthink how other people are going to react. We tend to think that everything is a bigger deal than it really is, and that we’re not doing enough. I know I do.

The next time you feel this way, swap places with the person you’re worried about and ask, “how would I feel?” The answer should be enough to allow yourself to move on.

That’s not to say you won’t encounter people who do not feel the way you do, or people who do make a bigger deal and expect more. But, use yourself as the yard stick to judge the situation by. You’re a reasonable person, as most people are, so your response is the best judge you have.

Side note, as of this writing, I haven’t received feedback from my partner either, and I haven’t thought twice about it.

Healing in an unstable environment

The argument I’d make is that you can’t heal in an unstable environment. I’d argue that you can only heal when you’re in an environment that offers unconditional love, support, and security. If your stability is under constant threat, then its hard to make room to heal.

I’ve now been in a stable environment for three years, and during that time I’ve begun to heal. 

That environment for me is the one my girlfriend and I have created. There have been challenges, scares, and mis-understandings, but it’s always been stable because of our love for each other. The love we have, the support we show each other, creates a stable environment, regardless of what’s going on around us. 

It’s something I’ve really been able to notice since we moved and begun to settle down. Prior to meeting Jen I had felt like I was all over the place. I moved to Los Angeles by myself in 2019, and despite living there for 3 years, I never really felt settled. I was alone, and I knew Los Angeles was not where I wanted to put down roots. And I wasn’t even sure I wanted to put down roots anywhere. Even though it caused me some feelings of anxiety, I always thought I would just live a semi-nomadic life, moving around every few years. 

But now we’ve started to create a home, and I’ve noticed that no longer feeling like a nomad has put me at ease and it’s allowed me to heal physically and emotionally. 

Being in one place, it’s been very clear to me how much I’m benefiting from it. My mood is generally better and my emotions are more balanced. My perception of things, and my role is much clearer. My ability to change has been one of the most apparent things to me. I always believed in the ability to change who you are through manipulation of the mind, but to see it play out in real time is something I’d never experienced in my life. I’ve been able to decide to change, and make it happen.

I’ve also seen profound changes in my writing, which I attribute to having a clearer mind. And I’ve also noticed an improved overall sense of control in my energy and effort, and specifically in my ability to pull back on the reins before I go over a cliff.

But the most profound thing, perhaps because it is so tangible, has been the daily chipping away at my chronic injury that has nagged me since 2020. I always held out hope that I’d one day be able to begin to heal, which is the reason I never stopped trying, but in the back of my mind I had begun to accept that this was just how I was going to have to live. Chronically injured, in pain, and never returning to my full form.

But in the last three months I’ve seen and felt dramatic improvements that I attribute to feeling stable. This new environment we’ve created has allowed me to be consistent, and know that I can be consistent into the future. The fear that I need to fix it today, because I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, is gone. And so I’ve been able to take my time and focus on small improvements.

Jen and I have always believed that my injury was part energetic and part physical. Energetically I’m getting to express myself and “release” what’s been building up inside of me through consistent writing, and things like the wake up workout challenge. Physically, I’m learning new modalities through reading and taking classed I’d been waiting to take until the time was right.

That’s all to say, which is probably not what you would have expected to hear, that my personal experience has taught me that we cannot expect people living in unstable environments to be healthy, heal, and prosper. The expectation for people who are struggling to keep a roof over their head, put food on the table, working multiple jobs, and in poor health, to recover, be better, and improve, is unrealistic. The environment in this country for millions of people is unstable at best, dire at worst, and until we improve upon those conditions for these people, we can’t expect anything to change.

A light healthy snack: Apple, Nuts, Nut Butter Drizzle

Long day today after a long week. I didn’t get to workout until 5 pm. I finished at 6, did some other chores, and before I knew it it was 6:45.

I wanted a snack before a late dinner, so this is what I had.

3/4 sliced apple. Pecans, almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts. Drizzle of Nutzo Keto Nut Butter.

Glass of soy milk.

I love nut butter, and I’ve been eating a ton of it recently, but in reality is is a processed food. In this case that means, to me at least, that I’m not getting the digestive benefits of having to chew and digest a nut. So, I cut back the nut butter and added more nuts.

I have no idea how much of a difference it makes, if any, but I think there has to be some logic to it.

Anyway, this is a nice healthy snack that’s okay to indulge in.

Cheers

Big Boy Breakfast Because It’s Almost Lunch

I went to bed hungry, which means I woke up hungry. I woke up at 6 am. Worked out from 9 - 10:30 am. I finally sat down to eat at 11 am. I was hungry, so I started with this.

Crock pot chicken, crock pot beets, sautéed mushrooms, avocado, boiled broccoli, chopped red onion, and chopped red cabbage. I put on a dressing made of olive oil, fig balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, sriracha, dijon mustard, pickle juice, and salt.

But after finishing it I was still hungry and I knew I had a long day of packing ahead of me, so I had this.

Overnight chia (2 tbsp of whole milk yogurt, 2 tbsp of chia, 1/2 cup soy milk), coconut flakes, ground flaxseed, frozen blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans.

I’ve recently been thinking about the advice of “eat a big breakfast, and taper the rest of your meals throughout the day.” I think this is bad advice for the majority of people. Most people nowadays sit behind a desk for their work. And, most people fail to get the daily recommended amount of exercise each day (which still wouldn’t be enough to justify a big breakfast). Between those two factors, desk jobs and not exercising, I think it’s foolish for most people to eat a big breakfast.

Big breakfasts are reserved for people who perform manual labor, or who are professional athletes. In other words, people who need and are going to use the fuel. For the rest of us, eat a normal sized breakfast. Today was an exception for me, but on most days I go for 3 equal sized meals, and minimal snacking on fruit and nuts.

Cheers to your practice.

The Behavior of Change

Thoughts and download from the week.

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Fearfulness is the most common state in a life that asks for no real change.

I’m going to try something new, and see if it works.

I’ve been thinking about something I heard on the podcast episode I shared last week. That is the idea that you can be happy, love yourself, and also be ruthlessly ambitious enough to accomplish your goals.

Elizabeth Gilbert tells a quick story about a guy who didn’t want to try her letters of love exercise because he thought it would make him weak. He thought that by showing himself love and compassion he would lose his drive, that chip on his shoulder, that he believed was the driving force behind his success.

I’ve feel that way too. Not necessarily in loving myself, although I could definitely benefit from more of that. But in my inability to take my foot off the gas. I hold this belief that if I slow down in any part of my life, that it’s going to create a ripple effect throughout every part of my life and ultimately lead to my demise. 

If I watch too much TV, or eat something I shouldn’t, skip a day of exercise, or don’t have a book I’m actively reading, that it’s going to be the beginning of the end of my dreams. That I’m going to slowly descend into some useless human being, incapable of anything.

But in reality the opposite is actually true. It’s the times when I’ve taken my foot off the gas that I’ve felt the best. It’s when my mind is clearest and my body feels most aligned, fit, and capable. And by contrast, when I’ve continued to push it, despite all of the signs from my mind, brain fog and agitation, and body, fatigue and pain, is when I accomplish the least, regardless of the fact that I’m doing the most.

So, to hear her tell this story really resonated with me, and I think it also ties well into a recent insight I had while my buddy was visiting me.

Almost a year ago my buddy got laid off. It was completely unexpected. When he called me to tell me I was in shock, and at a loss for words. He had worked for this company for at least as long as I’ve know him, going on six years, and he’s one of the smartest, most ambitious, experienced, and well educated friends I have. He is also, not surprisingly, Type A.

So in the year since his layoff he’s been busy trying to find a new job. But, through no fault of his own, he’s been unable to land one. So during his visit I asked him, “in retrospect, knowing now that you’d be 12 months out of having a job, and still looking, would you have spent the last 12 months doing anything differently? Would you have given yourself a break, eased off the pressure you’ve been putting on yourself, and enjoyed your time more, rather than staying busy?”

I asked him this question because it’s a question that I have wrestled with many times since leaving my well paying and rewarding, albeit stressful, job 6 years ago. And I still wrestle with it today. But hearing about his situation made me once again reassess my own. 

I could tell he didn’t like the question, and it made him uncomfortable because it forced him to question how he has been spending my time. Something I always question when it comes to my own life. But it’s an important question because it highlights the stress we put on ourselves as humans to be successful, even when nothing is wrong. It very much echoes the message that Robert M. Sapolsky tries to convey in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, and the message Boyd Varty shares in The Lion Trackers Guide to Life when he says, “no wild animal has ever taken part in a should.”

My friend and I are in the same situation in some respects, at least a it relates to the quality of our lives. Other than not having a job, and a steady income, not much has changed. We still eat the food we want to eat, live where we want, travel, have a roof over our head, a car to drive. For all intents and purposes, life is good. Yet we’re applying this relentless pressure to figure it out, not now, but yesterday.

The question of fulfillment and purpose always seems to come up, and with good reason. Figuring out how to spend your days when you have no “work” to go to can be difficult. It took me about two years to feel comfortable with it. But I’ve learned how to enjoy my days without work. I’ve settled into a good rhythm of activities that include exercise, reading, writing, volunteering, cooking, and now gardening, that I enjoy and keep me happy. I love my days.

But, despite that, the pressure is still on. I continue to pressure myself every day to figure it out, and work really hard to do so. That’s been my mentality for 6 years, and still, I haven’t figured it out. So maybe it’s time for a new approach. Back to Elizabeth Gilbert’s story.

What if instead of forcing myself to work and figure it out, I took the opposite approach. What if I fucked off when I wanted to fuck off. Watched TV during the day. Smoked weed when I wanted to smoke. Skipped workouts, and indulged in desserts when they called to me. What if I stayed up late, and slept in past the sunrise. Perhaps that’s been the problem. Perhaps that’s the love she speaks about that I’ve been denying myself, and it’s the reason I haven’t figured it out yet. Perhaps allowing myself that love, or level of comfort, rather than hindering my performance, like I believe it would, could be the catalyst to drive success.

In Tools of Titans Tim Ferriss talks about trying something new for 48 hours. He says, try it, and if it doesn’t work, you can always go back to your old ways. That same principle is something I’d been using even before reading his book. But hearing it from him has reinforced its practicality. So, that’s what I’m going to do.

Beth Lewis said in our class recently, “you can’t crush the gym, and life.” It’s true, and I’ve been trying to crush everything in my path. For once I’m going to take the opposite approach, and see where it takes me. Here’s to a new more lethargic way of being.

Informative podcast on chronic health in America, and the issues we face to fix it.

Joe Rogan #2210 - with Calley Means and Casey Means, MD - I don’t like listening to Calley Means. He’s a former political strategist and lobbyist for companies such as coco-cola. So I’ve ignored listening to anything he’s a part of, and it’s the reason I haven’t reads the book he co-wrote with his sister, Casey Means, MD, despite being very interested in what she has to say. I like Casey. She is one of the founders of Levels, the company I purchased my glucose monitor from earlier this year to experiment with. She’s a physician, a head and neck surgeon that left conventional healthcare to start her company and address the growing issue of metabolic health in this country, the root cause of most chronic disease. Metabolic disease is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, and it’s believed that ultra-processed food, pesticides, plastics, and other toxins in our environment, in addition to the sedentary lifestyle most people live, is the cause of it. Levels, her company, is trying to change that. And after spending time on the dark side her brother is too.

Recently Casey and Calley were part of a panel of experts that included people like Jillian Michaels (her testimony is much see stuff), Max Lugavere, and Brigham Buehler, who testified in front of congress to sound the alarm about the growing health epidemic in this country and, more importantly, the cause of it.

I’m glad I put my dislike for Calley aside and listened to this one, because I learned a lot, and, the reality is, good on him for trying change the system.

I found this quote from Casey Means to be the most notable:

“Ultra-processed food is dead food” - Casey Means

Ultra-processed food, food that is stripped of all it’s nutrients and filled with harmful ingredients, now make up 70 percent of the calories consumed in this country. Casey nailed it with that quote. Far too many people are eating nutrition less food, and it’s a big part of the problem.

Book I’m Reading - Wildlife Wars

I picked this book up from one of the “free libraries” you see on the street. That was probably over a year ago but I just started reading it recently. I’m more than a third of the way through now, but these lines from the introduction had me reeled in from the jump. I would listen to anyone’s story who has the type of mind that sees the world in this way. It’s a great book, and Richard Leakey provides a great example of what being a leader should look like. One in which integrity and morals are not compromised. 

From the introduction: 

“Conservation of biodiversity may be a global imperative, but eating one cooked meal a day and drinking clean water are more basic to the survival of most of the world's population. Protecting elephants and conserving natural ecosystems remain my personal priorities. But I am not so sure this would be so were I ill, hungry, and living in despair. I enjoy fresh air, sunshine, and crisp starlit nights. I do so, however, knowing full well that when I need it I can find shelter. We must somehow find a way to provide for our own species if we are also to preserve others.”

“Clean air, clean water, plentiful forests, and a human population that is well fed, educated, and reasonably affluent is our goal in Kenya. Saving the elephants is symbolic—a means to achieve these greater objectives.”

This Weeks Harvest

Growing season is coming to an end but that doesn’t mean there isn’t abundance in our garden. In fact, a lot of our vegetable plants, especially our tomatoes, are thriving right now in the cooler Colorado temperatures. This week I spent a couple of days harvesting some vegetables, cleaning, and cooking them. Here are a few pictures of the haul.

Quarter Share Cow

Shout out to Lazy Acres Ranch and Butcher. This past week I picked up my quarter share of cow from them, and I got to it right away cooking up some of the goodness they supplied me with. The ribeye pictured below was particularly tasty, but the beef short ribs were out of this world. They were so good my girlfriend who is a reformed vegan that still struggles with eating meat ate two with her dinner. Here’s the recipe I used. Super basic and super tasty. I didn’t have fresh rosemary so I used some other dried herbs in my cabinet, and I used chopped white onion in place of onion powder. The ribs were melt in your mouth delicious.

$1,250 for 100 lbs of pastured raised beef that comes from a ranch 2 hours away. I bought a freezer for just this purpose, and now I get to walk into my garage and pick out whatever cuts I want. It’s a beautiful thing.

Trail Run

Parmalee, Devil's Elbow and Castle Trail

Miles - 5.2

Elevation gain - 889 ft

This was my favorite trail run since moving to Colorado. Mostly single track, with plenty of tree coverage, and challenging elevation at points. The parking was easy and the trail wasn’t overly crowded at 10 am on a Wednesday. I also enjoyed not seeing one cyclist. Of all the trails I’ve run so far, this is one that I could see myself repeating again and again.

Side Dish: Sautéed Mushrooms

One package of organic white mushrooms and one package of organic baby bellas. Cut the mushrooms In half and put them in a bowl.

Chop two slices of red onion and chop two cloves of garlic. Add them to the bowl.

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a separate bowl and add 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of chili powder. Mix it all together.

Add the butter, oil, and slices to the mushrooms, garlic and onion, and toss until coated.

Bring a pan to medium heat. Add the mushroom mixture, 2 tbsp of water, and cover. Cook for 5 minutes.

Uncover and toss. Let cook for another 4 minutes uncovered.

The Behavior of Change

Sunday Scaries. Thoughts and download from the week.

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Grasshoppers

I learned that grasshoppers have a gear like mechanism in their legs that enables them to jump. Facts like these remind me why it’s important to question everything. In all my years of life, I never considered that the use of gears was not unique to humans. For 37 years I’ve been walking around misinformed. What other information am I taking at face value in my life? Where else am I holding onto a belief based on wrong information or information I have yet to learn? These are the types of questions I like to ask myself, and every time I learn something new, like this, it reminds me that there is still so much I don’t know, and everything should be questioned.

Enjoy your health

I was listening to a podcast recently with two nutritionists discussing diet, exercise, and health. I’m a big fan of the guest, the reason I tuned in, but the host I’d never heard of. I’ll call her Mary.

Mary said a lot of things that I didn’t agree with. I didn’t like her choice of words, or the message she was conveying. Fortunately she was sharing the stage with someone who knew what they were talking about so she was able to correct her.

But the thing that really bothered me was her insinuation that eating “healthy,” akakthe real way to eat, was boring. My god, if this lady is your nutritionist, then I feel really bad for you.

The way she said it, insinuated that things like fast food, take out, or frozen meals, were exciting. There is nothing exciting about any of those. Particularly when they make up the majority of your diet. They are poison, and are only appealing because they are cheap, accessible, and convenient.

A rancher at a conference a few weeks ago said, “our addiction to convenience is killing us.” He’s right.

If this lady knew anything about food, nutrition, or cooking, then she would know that there is nothing more exciting then stepping into your kitchen, opening the refrigerator, looking in the pantry, peaking around in the spice cabinet, and figuring out what ingredients you have and what you can make from them. Deciding what to eat based on how you’re feeling that day, or what your activity level was, and then catering a meal to those needs.

That’s fun, and exciting.

If you don’t have time to cook, let’s work on finding the time. If you can’t afford to grocery shop and cook healthy foods, let’s figure out ways to make cooking affordable and accessible. 

But please, for the love of god, don’t fucking tell me that eating healthy is boring. Yes, I crave foods from time to time that are outside of my repertoire of cooking skills and ingredient list, but those instance are few and far between. I prepare very close to every meal I eat during the week, and I enjoy the hell out of 99 percent of them.

After you’ve eaten this way for long enough, you learn what you like, what you don’t, what tastes good, and what doesn’t, and you learn how to make what you want and need. I’ve gotten to the point where eating out has become the disappointing thing to do. I typically leave a meal out thinking, “I should’ve just eaten at home.” 

Eating healthy is only boring when you don’t know what you’re doing. And clearly Mary doesn’t have a clue.

Lawn

I never mow the lawn in the same pattern. I mowed the lawn today, differently from two weeks ago, which was different from the two weeks before that. 

Today I split the front lawn down the middle length wise, and then attacked each half individually. Usually I start on the perimeter, ride the edge, and then form a pattern from there. Sometimes going in a circle. Sometimes focusing on each quadrant individually. Other times just completely making it up as I go, probably looking like a mad man, or someone who has never mowed the lawn before (both could be true).

In the back I started with what I’d describe as a candy cane shape. I took the long far side first, which is in the shape of a candy cane, and followed that to the end. I kept that pattern going back and forth. It was fun to be mowing in that shape, and it actually turned out to be pretty efficient. It was probably the fastest I’ve got done mowing since we moved in.

But the thing is, when I look at my neighbors lawns, all I see is straight rows. They look like they’re so methodical about it. They have a set pattern. They know the most efficient way, and they know what they want their lawn to look like, and so they’ve adopted the same pattern over and over.

When their lawn is mowed, it looks orderly and clean. The way my rug looks after I’ve vacuumed it. Whereas mine kind of looks like my hair after I’ve just given myself a haircut.

But, the more fascinating thing I’ve realized lately, is that I’ve been using the weed whacker incorrectly for the last 3.5 months. Since June I’ve struggled trying to figure out the best angle, and height, to keep the thread at so that it edges properly. But I couldn’t figure it out. Last time I edged the lawn I switched hand positions [read: non-dominant dominant]. I put the handle of the edger in my right hand, and used my left as the guide. Switching hands turned me in the opposite direction. Come to find out, that’s the direction the edger is supposed to face. Nothing wrong with my technique, per se, just holding the tool backwards. Even edger’s are apparently made for righties.

Where else in my life am I struggling because I’m holding the tool backwards?

My role

Recently I’ve been thinking about the role I play in a given situation. In particular unsuccessful ones. The easiest example is like when an unintended emotional trigger gets pulled in either my girlfriend or I, and we delve into an argument. In those situations, even if she’s wrong [;)], once things have cooled off I like to ask myself “What role did I play in the descent into chaos? How could a different action, word, facial expression, or body position, have changed the outcome of that conversation?” And then I try to remember that for the next time.

Which means, in order to be effective, I also have to figure out the signs that things are about to get hairy. Is there a certain feeling I can identify that gets triggered before an argument happens? Is there certain body language or words that she starts to use that I could look out for that’ll signal what’s to come, and trigger me to change my approach? What are those signs, and can I remember to change my actions and reactions in time to save the conversation, and ultimately our day.

What role can I play to improve outcomes, even if it means sacrificing how I “feel?”

Something to listen to

Elizabeth Gilbert — How to Set Strong Boundaries, Overcome Purpose Anxiety, and Find Your Deep Inner Voice (#770) - If you’re a male listening to this, and it feels to feminishy, just give it a chance. Actually, if you feel that way, it’s probably a sign you should keep listening. For awhile I’ve believed that to be your best self you need to be your unapologetically real self, and that’s what she talks about. At least that’s my interpretation. And while I haven’t achieved that yet, it’s a great conversation that gives you permission to pursue it.

The Joe Rogan Experience - #2207 Shawn Ryan - I just enjoyed this conversation because Shawn Ryan really seems like a down to earth guy whos curious about life and what’s going on. There is no agenda. Much like Rogan. Their conversation spans across multiple topics and I thought Shawn brought a really good perspective to just about everything discussed.

Runs and Hikes

Eldorado Canyon State Park - Continental Divide Overlook via Fowler to Rattlesnake Gulch Loop - This was harder than I anticipated when I set out for my run. I don’t know if it was just the heat, or what, but it wrecked me. It’s a steady gain all the way to the top, which makes for a pleasant descent. I liked how accessible the trail is, and the views are beautiful. I ran it during the week and there was very little traffic on the trail. Parking was also a breeze.

Rocky Mountain National Park - Sky Pond, The Loch, and Timberline Falls, via Glacier Gorge Loop - This was my first trip back to Rocky Mountain NP in over 5 years, and a lot has changed. In 2019 I hiked to Sky Pond. I was able to easily park at the Bear Lake Trail. On this trip we needed a time entry permit, and when we got to the Bear Lake Trail lot we were turned around by park rangers because the lot was full. We parked about a mile from the trail head, turning our 10 mile hike into 12 miles. Sky Pond is beautiful, but the park and route felt like an amusement park, with scores of people everywhere. If you’re looking for a more wild experience, I’d recommend heading somewhere else.

Golden Gate Canyon State Park - Panorama Point via Mule Deer and Raccoon Trail - Golden Gate Canyon has become one of my favorite places to hike and run. It’s accessible, beautiful, and not overly crowded. Most trails also have a lot of coverage from the sun, like this one. Views are beautiful and the trails are well maintained. I highly recommend this park.

Things that stuck with me

“We always talk about learning disabilities, but we never talk about teaching disabilities”

Italy - Florence to Venice

In 2022 my girlfriend and I traveled to Italy to watch the MotoGP San Marino race. We planned a two week vacation around that event that started in Florence and ended in Venice. In between we stopped in San Marino, Rimini, Medona, and Ortisei in the Dolomites.

Below is part of an email I shared with my brother-in-law about our trip.

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Here's some things we did, where we stayed, and ate.

Hotel Genziana in Ortisei - It's honestly one of my favorite hotels I've ever stayed at. The room was exceptional, as was the huge breakfast buffet, and 4 - 5 course dinner tasting menu each night. You might have to elect to include the meals but they are definitely worth it. There's also a spa in the basement with steam, sauna, pool, and hot tubs. They also have underground parking if you have a car.

I don't know what your itinerary looks like but in the event your driving from Florence like we did then here are three great restaurants to stop at on the way.

Florence heading towards San Marino: Il Capanno - we randomly stumbled upon this place and it was one of our favorite meals of the whole trip. It was absolutely, positively, 100% authentic Italian in the middle of nowhere. The place was packed with locals, everyone knew each other, and then there was Jen and I. An awesome experience.

Leaving San Marino heading north: Ristorante Cavallino - former Ferrari employee cafeteria turned fine dining restaurant, managed by Massimo Bottura, owner of Osteria Francescana (one of the best restaurants in the world, located nearby in Modena). We had a fine dining tasting menu lunch here. The restaurant is filled with Ferrari memorabilia and the Ferrari museum is the next building over. A fun stop on the way north.

Entering the Dolomites in a town called Trento: Al Gusto la cucina di Corrado - I said that Il Capanno was one of our favorite meals, well we had many favorites, and this was right up there. Another place we randomly stumbled upon as it was getting late and we needed dinner. A small restaurant with maybe 8 - 10 tables. Corrado is the owner/chef who you'll watch whipping up all the dishes, and when we were there his daughter was the only waitress. It's about as close as you can come to sitting down in a locals house for dinner. It was excellent. 

More food, but in the Dolomites -

Pfoshof - A family owned and operated farm for close to 200 years (if my memory is correct). They recently opened a restaurant on the property where they only serve the food they grow and raise. We had insane homemade salami, jam, and bread, as well as awesome pasta dishes. It's also a beautiful setting looking out over the mountains. Here too it was mom, dad, daughters doing everything. Highly recommend it. 

Ristorante Laurinhütte - If you stay at Hotel Genziana then you can walk to the cable car that will take you up to Alpe di Siusi, which is this amazing high altitude plateau and alpine meadow where you can hike in the warm months (like we did) or ski in the cold months. There are a number of hikes and beautiful paths to get lost on. While you're walking you're just surrounded by the most insane beauty and the sound of dairy cow bells. We did a hike that took us to Ristortante Laurinhütte for lunch. The food was homemade and exceptional and the views were even better. Such an ideal and picturesque way to have a meal.

I know I just mentioned Alpe di Siusi but I just wanted to emphasize that it's not something to be missed. It was a major highlight in an amazing trip.

Pisciadù Hütte - We did a via ferrata that took us to this refugio for lunch before descending the opposite side of the mountain on foot. Again, homemade delicious food in the most beautiful setting on top of a mountain. The via ferrata was called Furcela de Saslonch and we did the Tridentia route (a longer one), but for some reason I can't find it on Google map. Ferrata Pisciadu Klettersteig is what comes up when I search. But you can email info@catores.com to find out more. Our guide, Enrico, was superb, and their office is a 5 minute walk from Hotel Genziana in Ortisei. He picked us up and drove us to and from. Jen's favorite day of the trip.

Sightseeing -

Lago di Carezza Karersee - A really beautiful lake that requires a beautiful drive through the winding roads of the mountains to get to. If you're in the area or want to go for a nice drive, this is a nice spot to stop at and walk around. Gorgeous.

I think that's all of the highlights I can remember and have saved. I have other places saved in my maps that looked cool but that we just didn't have time to do. Whatever you choose you won't go wrong. It was an exceptional 4 days in the mountains.

Let me know if you have any questions.

30 Day Challenge - Wake Up Push Up - Takeaways and What I Learned

On August 8th I began a self-imposed challenge, to record myself doing many push ups as possible - 1, immediately upon waking up for 30 straight days. To clarify, after peeing and brushing my teeth.

The reason for the challenge was multi-faceted, but the main two points were.

1. I wanted to use the challenge as a way to engage people. Everyone loves a challenge and I thought this would be an easy way to get people involved and moving.

2. I needed a way to force myself to be on camera. If I was going to start a YouTube channel, and take it seriously, then I needed to get over my fear of being on camera, and I needed a way to make myself commit to it.

Looking back on the 30 days and I’ve realized that a lot more happened than I could’ve ever predicted. While the first reason, to engage people and bring them to my channel, didn’t really pan out (all 30 videos received a total of 151 views, average 5 per video), the 30 day commitment raised some other unintended benefits.

1. I accomplished my goal of recording + posting for 30 straight days. Doing something that made me uncomfortable.

2. I got more comfortable being on camera.

3. I got better and faster at editing videos.

4. I equipped my gym better for working out and recording.

5. I did 1,426 push ups. Additional rep, on top of my normal workout routine, that resulted in increased strength, endurance, and shoulder stability.

But perhaps the coolest, at least to me, is that it made me think of a new way to get people moving, but starting with just 1 set of 1 exercise per day.

Building a Sustainable Workout Routine One Day at a Time - 30 Day Challenge

In my life I’ve always pursued goals with some desired outcome in mind. For this one, to grow and engage an audience. Not once did I think about any of the other achievements that would happen as a result.

We hear the advice often to just do it, just get started. People who have already achieved success will often say this, because they understand what it means. You don’t know where you’re going to end up, what your idea is going to look like, or what’s going to work or not, until you start. And that’s been the biggest lesson I’ve learned from this 30 day challenge.

We want to know what the end result is going to look like. When we get that idea in our head to do something, it’s seems so clear. But we really can’t know, because so much can happen on the journey.

After completing the 30 days of push ups I picked up campfire squats to add to my morning routine. The reason I chose campfire squats was because I couldn’t perform 1 clean rep. It seemed like a good challenge, but physically and mentally. I’m 25 days in, and like the push up challenge, I’ve already seen benefits I never anticipated. In a few more days I’ll share those as well.

Defining Success after 30 Days of Push Ups

30 Day Challenge Playlist