Electrolytes are trending, but they are just sugar delivery systems

I think it’s criminal the way companies load a product with sugar and then promote it as a health supplement. That’s been the new trend with electrolyte powders. The claim is that they’ll balance your nutrient level. The truth is that they are just another way to deliver sugar and get people addicted to their product.

One of the leading electrolyte brands is Liquid IV. My friends in Los Angeles all used them. I’ve heard Joe Rogan promote them. But for whatever reason I was never inclined to try them. I was in REI a few weeks ago and thought about buying a packet. Luckily I checked the ingredients list and nutrition facts first.

Liquid IV contains 11 grams of added sugar.

In my hotel room this past week was free samples of Mortal Hydration. Their tagline is “Formulated to Fight Death.” Sounds critical. In one packet is 8 grams of added sugar. The first ingredient is organic cane sugar, the last ingredient is Stevia (just in case the sugar didn’t hook you). They recommend mixing this packet with 22 oz of water.

The other night my fiancé and I went to the Backcountry Film festival. I took a free sample of DripDrop Electrolytes. Their label states it was formulated using Oral Rehydration Solutions Science (ORS Science), and developed by a doctor. Science, doctor, it must be good for you. One packet contains 7 grams of added sugar. They recommend mixing it in 8 oz of water.

DripDrop goes on to say that the doctor made it for people in developing countries to fight dehydration. They claims that there’s a special formula that helps accelerate hydration. But here’s the thing. If you live in a developing country where dehydration and lack of calories are real threats to life, then Liquid IV, DripDrop, and Mortal Hydration could all make a difference. That is a good use case for them.

However, if you live in the developed world, or a country like the U.S.A., where it’s very likely that you’re already consuming too many calories and sugar, then the last thing you need is an extra shot of sugar and calories in liquid form. There are very few people suffering from dehydration in America. Especially anyone who can afford packets of electrolyte powder. 

Don’t get me wrong, sodium, magnesium, and potassium are critical to optimizing performance and health. But you don’t need them delivered on a sugar train. And the people who need the sugar are people who are exercising enough to burn that sugar. Endurance athletes, CrossFitters. If you’re training for an hour a day or less, then a packet of sugar and calories is the last thing you want.

Buy an electrolyte mix without sugar, without artificial sweeteners and flavor. That’s what will turn a good thing into a bad habit.

DripDrop contains 35 calories, Mortal Hydration 40 calories, and Liquid IV has 50 calories per serving.

I did an intense one hour workout the other day. I burned 220 calories. That means 10 minutes of work burned 40 calories. That might not seem like a terrible tradeoff, but the only way to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit. And most of us are already in caloric surpluses. Why make the work harder?

But the problem isn’t just the unnecessary calories and sugar. Chances are if you drink sugar water you’re going to crave sweets and sugars throughout other times in your day. It’s an addictive substance. That’s why it’s in so many ultra-processed foods and drinks.

If you think you need electrolytes, choose the versions with no sugar and no artificial sweeteners. That means it will have to be unflavored. Or do what I do and buy the main ingredients in bulk from BulkNutrition.com and mix your own. I used 1/8 of a tsp of the magnesium malate, 1/8 tsp of potassium chloride, and 1/4 tsp of table salt per 32 oz of water. I might mix a couple of those a days depending on how active I am. LMNT also makes a good unflavored version.

But don’t fall for the hype and just ASSUME that it’s good for you because everyone is talking about electrolyte or because a doctor is promoting it. Always check the nutrition facts and ingredient list. If it has added sugar, put it back. You don’t need it. 

Which Egg Do You Want To Eat?

Left: Store brand “free range” and Right: Vital Farms organic pasture raised

The eggs I typically buy are Vital Farms brand, organic and pasture raised. If the store has regeneratively raised then I’ll go for those, but right now most stores don’t carry them. My sense is that for that extra $1 - $2 per carton, people aren’t buying them. There is more education to do on the benefits of regenerative farming.

But with the egg shortage recently due to the bird flu, Vital Farms eggs have not been on the shelves. In some grocery stores, they haven’t had eggs at all. So when I saw eggs on a recent food shopping trip, I decided to grab a dozen.

The best and most expensive eggs available were store brand “free range” eggs for $4.99 per dozen. Vital Farms organic pasture raised by comparison can be $10, regenerative eggs are even more.

So I didn’t have any grand expectations for the eggs I bought. I know how most chickens are raised in this country. I know that cage free, free range, non-GMO, no antibiotics, is really all horse shit when compared to a chicken that is actually raised on pasture. But I was shocked when I cracked these two eggs next to each other.

I was preparing to make chicken cutlets and I had one Vital Farm egg left, so I used it along with the new dozen I bought. The difference in color almost made me throw the egg away. I couldn’t believe how dead the egg on the left looked in comparison to the egg on the right.

The egg on the right looks like it’s full of life and nutrients. Thick and creamy. While the egg on the left looks like it came from a chicken who struggled to survive.

Most food we eat doesn’t have such a contrast when put side by side. Meats, vegetables, and fruits, have a better appearance when raised regeneratively or organically, when compared to conventionally raised. They have a better taste too. But out of the box (out of the shell), I don’t think the juxtaposition is nearly as drastic this.

When I see the difference in these yolks it is no wonder to me that bird flu spreads so quickly and easily through the factory chicken farms that house hundreds of thousands of birds all crammed on top of each other, living in their own filth and excrements. These birds are clearly very unhealthy and their immune systems are therefore incapable of fighting off a virus. The same way that many people with co-morbidities were unable to fight off COVID in this country.

And it’s not wonder. If most people are eating eggs that look like the one on the left, or worse, then how could we expect to be healthy. If what were putting into our bodies is dead, then how could we expect to live.

The first key to turning around our health is putting healthy food in front of us. And that happens when we force the food system to change, and start growing food that serves us and not the corporations that own the system.

To achieve success, visualize success

Chase Hughes spoke about rehearsing before a big fight, or a big event in your life, whatever it might be. He spoke about the importance of visualizing everything. Of seeing it through to the end, visualizing success, and then doing it over. Repeating it again, and again, and again, in your mind. Visualizing and anticipating, so that when you do step into the ring, the office, onto the stage to give a presentation, you are prepared for whatever comes your way. And the more you rehearse, the higher your chances are of succeeding.

It’s something that Charles Duhigg also spoke about in The Power of Habit. He used Michael Phelps as the example. 

Michael Phelps had a very specific routine that he followed every day during training. This was intentional. So that when we woke up on race day, he was able to get right to action without having to think. There was not hesitation. Part of his routine during training was visualizing his race. His launch off the board. His stroke. His breathing. His turn. Visualizing each piece of the race.

He become such a master of visualizing his races, that during one race when his goggles started filling with water, preventing him from being able to see, he didn’t panic. He knew exactly what to do. He had visualized this race so many times beforehand, that he didn’t need his sight. It was already programmed in him, and he won, despite not being able to see.

That’s the power of rehearsing.

But I think perhaps the more important thing that Chase Hughes said was that every time you envision your event, race, fight, or presentation, and that vision is filed with fear, anxiety, things going wrong, and insecurities, that also counts as a rehearsal. A bad rehearsal, but a rehearsal nonetheless. And each time you rehearse in this way, you engrain the opposite outcome in your brain. You begin to engrain failure, because that’s what you see.

It was a very interesting perspective because it is true, and I had never thought about it that way before. It would be the equivalent of repeating the wrong lines or the wrong scene while rehearsing for a movie, or play. If that were to happen, chances are the performance would be shitty.

It’s also interesting to me, because that is what I did in preparing for my trip to the cabin a couple of weeks ago. I thought about all the things that could go wrong. I thought about all the things that were making me nervous. I had planned on going out a week earlier to run reconnaissance  and see what the trail was like. Get an idea of how difficult it might be. Even knowing about the parking situation, and permitting. But I never did it. 

I went in blind, suppressing my fear and anxieties, instead of acknowledging them. So, it should be no surprise that when disaster struck, when I feel in a snow well and was stuck chest deep (aka, my goggles filled with water), I immediately decided to turn back. I had never visualized successfully getting to the cabin. I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t planned. So it didn’t take much to throw me off.

Don’t that negative rehearsal a place in your mind. Shut it down. It doesn’t serve you. Worrying and giving yourself anxiety over something you have to do or want to do, is not going to help you be prepared. It’s just going to hamper performance.

Instead take the time to visualize success, from beginning to the end. Anticipate where things might go wrong, what questions might be asked, and then figure out the answers. Step out into the field before your trip, or onto the stage before your presentation. See what it feels like. Get comfortable in the uncomfortable environment.

Take the time to go through the motions. Stay positive and smile. Give yourself the best chance to succeed by visualizing yourself on the other side of success. 

The path to health is littered with temptation

In this world, if you want to be healthy, then you need to follow a game plan. You need to have some rules. You need to have parameters set up that you’re going to stay within.

You need to have some tricks to help you stay on the path. You need all of those things to help you build healthy habits. And once you’ve developed healthy habits, it will make sticking to your plan, maintaining your goal, easier.

But it will still require work. Because we live in an unhealthy environment. We do not live in an environment that promotes health. We live in one that advances the opposite.

So it’s on you to be proactive and vigilant. The temptations are all around us. The temptations are intentionally the most affordable, and the most accessible. So, if you’re not being vigilant, it’s very easy to get sucked into the system and slip up.

The food system is set up in such a way to keep us just alive enough to keep us coming back for more. But the food system in no way supports making us thrive.

The food is grown in a toxic and lifeless environment. It’s then mixed with toxic chemicals. Addictive substances are added. And sold everywhere.

Achieving health in today’s society requires hyper vigilance and hyper focus. It’s the only way.

Tuna Salad and Brussels

My fiancé left some tuna in the fridge. Not enough to make a meal, to I opened a new can and mixed them together. I figured it was a good way to make the most of leftovers and add some extra protein to my meal.

I’ve also been back into eating nice salads for lunch. We’ve been getting these great greens from our local supermarket. Gotham Greens, a Brooklyn based company, grows all of their greens in greenhouses. The specific variety we’ve been buying, Rocky Mountain Crunch, is grown in Colorado. And since we like to support anything local, we’ve been buying this.

A nice little lunch filled with protein, fiber, clean carbs, and healthy fat.

• Tuna Salad

  • Canned albacore tuna

  • Organic mayo

  • Dijon mustard

  • Soy sauce

  • Salt

  • Tomatoes

• Green Salad

  • Rocky Mountain Crunch

  • Cherry tomatoes

  • Opal apple

  • Organic red kidney beans

  • Raw chipped yellow onion

  • Avocado

  • Ground flax

  • Olive oil, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar

  • Salt and pepper

• Sauteed crispy brussels

  • Brussels, stemmed and halved

  • Cooked on medium-high heat with olive oil and salt

  • Uncovered for 5 minutes, covered for 5 minutes (or until tender enough to pierce with a fork)

Disconnect and Make Better Decisions

I recently realized how easy it is to be manipulated. What all of the advertising, marketing, and celebrity sponsorships is all about. Because for the first time in my life, I was the unknowing victim.

I love the UFC. I think it’s the greatest American sport. I also love Dana White. He is a sports marketing genius. There is no one, in my opinion, better than him at promotion. He’s no bullshit, and I enjoy the brand of entertainment he’s created.

I don’t love Donald Trump. I don’t hate him like most people, half the country, do. But then again, it takes a lot to make me hate you. It takes an equal amount to make me like you. But I’d say I’m at best neutral on him, in that I don’t think he’s any better or any worse than any of the other options. I didn’t want him to be president the first time he won, or the second time. But I also didn’t want Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden to be president. Maybe I’m just tough to please.

But the first time I saw Donald Trump sitting ringside at the UFC chatting it up with Dana White I immediately thought, “Maybe he’s not so bad. Maybe I got it all wrong.” I quickly became aware of what was happening and snapped myself out of it. But, it happened. For a moment, I was convinced he was an ok guy, and not a word had been spoken.

But that hasn’t happened with Mark Zuckerberg, who has become as frequent a sight at UFC events. The more I see him sitting ringside, the less and less I like him. But I digress.

But it’s an amazing thing really, to be influenced just by association with something or someone you like. And it’s scary because that’s happening to us all day.

It’s part of what Chase Hughes spoke about on the Joe Rogan Experience. The openness and suggestibility of certain people, and how easy it is to manipulate them as a result. It’s what he’s built his whole career on. It’s part of what I’m reading about in The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.

In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell points to a study that showed how Peter Jennings’ facial expressions alone when discussing Ronald Reagan were enough to sway his viewers to vote for Reagan in far greater numbers than viewers of CBS or NBC. Despite all three stations producing programming that was unfavorable to Reagan. According to the study, Peter Jennings’ face lit up when talking about Ronald Regan versus Walter Mondale.

When participants were asked to score his facial expressions on a scale of 0 - 21, with the lowest being “extremely negative” and the highest being “extremely positive,”  he scored 13.38 for Mondale, and 17.44 for Reagan. The other anchors, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, scored fairly evenly for both candidates (~11.00).

The result? On average viewers of Peter Jennings voted for Ronald Reagan 70 - 75 percent of the time, compared to 50 - 60 percent of the time for viewers of CBS or NBC. We are way more susceptible to manipulation than we think. 

If facial expressions are enough to unknowingly tilt someone’s decision, then what would we estimate the impact of social media, the 24 hour news cycle, and reporting that focuses on biases and curated narratives instead of facts? How much could that be influencing our choices and opinions? All day screens are hurling suggestions at us, trying to convince us to take a certain side, and meanwhile we think that we’re voting for Reagan because he’s the better candidate.

I see it as an advantage that I don’t have social media and I don’t watch the news. Everything that’s important in the world still makes it in front of me anyway, but only 1 percent of what isn’t important does. I see the elimination of social media and news as being as advantageous as eliminating processed foods, drugs, alcohol, toxic relationships, or an unfulfilling job. As advantageous as sleeping 8 hours per night.

If you’re looking for a path out of the rabbit hole, disconnect from the noise, and pay attention to see if you start making different, better, decisions. Decisions that benefit you, not someone else.

I can guarantee you will. 

Look to Food

Think about the current state of eating in America. It used to be that most meals were made at home, or made down the street by someone you knew. Then came the invention of the microwave dinner, the first major processed food. Suddenly, you didn’t have to cook. You could go out and buy pre-made meals and store them in the freezer.

Then fast food and drive-thrus entered the scene. Now you could sit in your car to order food, and sit in your car to eat. Alone. Around the same time came the explosion of ultra-processed foods (“manufactured calories”). “Food,”manufactured calories, became cheap and abundant everywhere. You could eat anywhere, anytime.

And now present day someone delivers your food straight to your door. Without having to talk to anyone or see anyone. 

We keep looking for complex answers to the complex questions: Why are we so divided and why are we so unhealthy? But the answer is simple, and it’s the same for both questions.

Food.

When we broke bread as a family, we were killing two birds with one stone. We were coming together, and we were nourishing our bodies. Now, most of us accomplish neither each day. Most of us are happy to tap a few buttons and have food magically appear before our eyes, and think nothing of it. We’ve made eating into a habit instead of the spiritual practice it used to be.

But food is so much more than a habit or just a means to get calories. It’s so much more important. Food is nature, and when grow our own food, when we cook our own meals, it’s an opportunity to connect with nature and the bounty it provides. Our body gets more than calories and nutrients. It’s nourished by the earth, grounded by the process.

When we gather around the kitchen to cook we connect with our family and our community. When we cook for someone else, when we feed someone else, we’re connecting on the human need to be nourished. To take care of someone else. Whatever our differences might be, they melt in the presence of a meal together. They melt in the offering of a home cooked meal.

When I see food delivery drivers drop a bag of food off and run back to their car before anyone comes to the door, I cringe. It gives me anxiety. Because there is no better evidence of just how disconnected we are.

We don’t see where the ingredients for our food comes from. We don’t see how it’s being prepared. We don’t smell the amazing aromas that fill a kitchen. We don’t know who’s cooking for us. We don’t hear the sizzling or clanging of pans. We don’t know who’s preparing the dish. And we don’t even see who’s serving us anymore. We are 100% removed from the process, and just left with one job.

To eat.

But that’s not the purpose of food, and it never was.

How snow shoeing kicked my ass.

Every sport has its own cadence, technique, strength, and endurance requirements. And while cross over between sports exists, the only way to really excel at a sport is to train for the specifications demanded of that sport. Despite knowing that, I am amazed time and time again at how my fitness in one area, could be exposed as inconsequential in another.

Over the last few months I’ve been exercising 5 - 6 days per week. A combination of running, skiing, hiking, strength training, and kettlebell work. And I’ve been feeling strong and fit. However last week I attempted to snow shoe through deep powder with an overnight pack on my back and got my ass kicked.

My intended destination was a remote and primitive cabin ~5 miles and 2,000 ft from the trailhead. But I never made it. Which is perhaps not all that surprising considering the serious doubts I was having leading up to the trip.

I turned around at 3.5 miles, to total 7 miles on the day. By this point in my trip I had been breaking trail for 1.5 miles, and I was way more fatigued than I had expected to be. I also was starting to feel nervous about being deep in the woods alone. So, at around 1 pm I told myself I’d keep going until 2 pm, and then reevaluate the situation. At 1:30 pm I thought about taking a break for a drink and a bite to eat when I suddenly sank into a snow well that nearly buried me chest deep.

I was able to get out after a few minutes of struggle (if you’ve never been caught in a snow well, getting out is like fighting quick sand, you just make the situation worse), but it was enough of a sign to convince me to head back. The combination of the exhaustion I was feeling and the very real danger I had just experienced, decided my fate.

But I couldn’t believe how fatigued 3.5 miles of snow shoeing got me. I felt drained in a way that I haven’t felt in a very long time. To be sure, there were other factors at play other than just my fitness. Elevation had to have played a role. The trailhead starts at 9,000 feet and ascends to over 11,000. Hydration played a role. I planned on stopping every 1 mile for a proper break to drink and eat, but I kept blowing it off. With deep snow covering everything around me, I didn’t feel like I could rest anywhere, so I pushed on with dreams of relaxing once I hit the cabin. Lastly, breaking trail in knee deep snow with a 30 - 40 pound back on is not easy. It’s something I’ve never done before. And it’s definitely not something I was training for in the gym.

In the end it took me 5+ hours to travel 7 miles. A snails pace I’d never experienced before.

But that’s all kind of the point. Snow shoeing to a cabin at the top of an 11,000 foot mountain requires specific training, specific planning, and a specific mindset. It requires a comfortability with being out in the woods with no visible trail. None of which I had been preparing for this winter. And so, I got chewed up and spit out.

For sure my training in other disciplines helped me get as far as I did, and back to my car safely. As did the mindset I developed training for long distance endurance races. That’s the cross over. But the only way I was going to make it to that cabin was if I had someone with me to ease the uncertainty of being alone, and if I had been training for snow shoeing.

I like when I get humbled. With so much fitness experience under my belt I like to think I can jump in and do anything on the fly. Sometimes it works, other times it does not. And the older I get the more it seems to fall into the latter. Regardless, I’ve committed to myself that I will get back on this trail in the near future and conquer my fear and my fatigue.

What does an expiration date on food actually mean?

I got these yogurts, with a “Jan 29 2025” expiration date, from a food drive I participated in on February 7th.

“Expired” Yogurt

They were left over at the end of the drive, and given their “Jan 29th Expiration Date,” I took a case of 18 home with me for fear that at some point, some misguided government rule or regulation would force these perfectly good yogurts to be thrown away. As I write this on February 21st, I’m still eating them. In fact, I had one not long ago for breakfast.

This was the second food drive I had been a part of in as many weeks, and at each one there was a full palate of yogurts being given away. Everything we give out at our markets is food that was recovered through partnerships with grocery stores, retail stores, restaurants, and bakeries. All of the food we recover and distribute would have otherwise been thrown away. For reasons like “past due.”

A palate of recovered yogurt being distributed at our market

The customers who attend our markets are a mix of locals and migrants, young and old, families and singles, who all share a common struggle: food insecurity.

Luckily for our community, and our planet, organizations now exist who intercept “food waste” and divert it from the landfill and into peoples homes. Over 50 million people in the U.S. experience food insecurity every day (many of them are children), and many millions more struggle with nutrition insecurity (not getting the nutrition they need). And decomposing food in landfills is one of the leading causes of climate change. It emits a gas called methane, which is arguably more deleterious to our environment than carbon dioxide.

Recovering food and distributing it for free at our markets kills two birds with one stone.

But so when we think about expired food, or food past its “Best Buy” date, what does that actually mean? Does it mean we should avoid it at the grocery store, or throw it out if it’s in our refrigerator or pantry? Usually the answer is no. Expiration dates typically indicate food quality, not safety.

Here are a few definitions that I learned from the non-profit I volunteer with, that can help guide your decision making. 

• Sell by date: How long the store can display the product.

• Use by date: The last date that the product is at peak quality.

• Best before date: The best date for flavor and quality
  

I still have a few Jan 29th yogurts, and a few Feb 3rd yogurts from a different batch, in my refrigerator, and I fully intend on eating all of them. Each morning when I pop one open I give it the sensory test, which is the best way to determine if food is safe to eat.

Does it look ok? ✅ 

Does it smell ok? ✅ 

Does it taste ok? ✅ 

If everything checks out, then I’m good to enjoy my food, that was previously destined for the dumpster.

Some learn from history, others want to repeat it.

So often I worry if what I’m about to say is going to offend people. Then I read an article like this, “If Indians and Pakistanis Can Relocate, Why Can’t Gazans?” and I think, “I’m way too kind.”

But I think that’s the problem. The worry I feel, and other good people feel, about hurting others. Because when you’re an innately good person, hurting people is the opposite of what you do. Rather, you consistently try to shield others from harm. And you don’t discriminate. It doesn’t matter who they are. What they believe. If they are good or bad. Or whether they agree with you or not. But that’s not how the other side plays it.

The side of evil doesn’t hesitate. They don’t worry. They go straight for what they want, and they take it by any means necessary.

I do wonder how all the people who write and talk about oppressing and displacing whole populations of people would feel if the script was flipped. If they were the ones on the losing end. If their possessions, their houses, their cars, were confiscated or destroyed and they were told to never return. Go start over somewhere else. I wonder if they would say “well it happened to the Indians, the Pakistanis, the Germans, guess it’s my turn.” Or if they’d fight back. History says, they’d fight back.

But the thing that’s so curious to me about invoking such events as the Partition of India, the swap of Greek Orthodox Christians and Muslims, or the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, to justify the displacing of people from Gaza, is that these aren’t examples to follow. These aren’t examples of a time when things turned out okay.

Rather, these are examples of what not to do. They are, or should be, reminders of atrocities invoked on innocent people that should never be repeated.

By the author’s own words he says that the Partition of India “led to some two million deaths and uprooted 18 million people.” Not ok. He goes on to say that “both India and Pakistan worked hard to integrate the new arrivals.” Insinuating that everything was peaceful from that moment forward.

He leaves out the genocide, supported by Nixon and Kissinger, that took place against the people of East Pakistan (modern day Bangladesh) just a couple of decades later, in part due to left over hostilities from the Partition. And he omits the India - Pakistan war that occurred soon after in response to the genocide, in which an estimated 2 million East Pakistanis were killed and 10 million refugees that fled to India to save their lives.

Netflix has a show out called Black Warrant (I highly recommend it). The show is based on the real life experiences of Sunil Gupta, who was a jailer in India’s Tihar prison in the 1980s. In one of the scenes a fellow jailer describes Partition and how it impacted his family.

“My dad used to say, before the Partition, we had huge, huge farms. We had to leave everything behind overnight and come to this side. So, one thing is clear to me since I was a child. The common man, Hindu, Muslim, they’re not our enemies. They suffered the same as us. You know who the real enemy is? The assholes who play these political games.” [emphasis mine]

I wonder what could drive someone to advocate for forcing people to leave everything behind, suffer, and start over. I wonder how someone could be so brazen to suggest that this as a good option, when it’s not something they would ever voluntary for themselves or their family. I can only assume that unless you’ve ever been displaced before, you have no idea what it must be like. But then again, I’ve never been displaced, and yet I know it’s not something I want to push on anyone else.

I think it requires a weak, fragile, scared, and insecure type of person to be able to overlook the devastation, loss of life, injury, and trauma being displaced causes. A desire to sacrifice others because it makes them feel safe. I think that’s the only way you could sit in a comfortable desk chair, in a temperature controlled room, typing away, and think, “Yes, this makes sense.”

Try It and Then Decide

Try it is something that I’ve been telling myself a lot lately. When I’m being resistant to doing something, especially when it’s something I should be doing that I’m not, or something I’m doing that I shouldn’t, I’ve been able to get over the hump by saying, “just try it.” If it doesn’t work, go back to what you were doing.

A few months ago I started a writing routine called morning pages, which was developed by Julia Cameron and shared in the book The Artists Way. I was inspired by Brian Koppelman in Tools of Titans to begin. He said “Of the 100 people I’ve given it [The Artists Way] to, maybe ten of them have actually opened the book and done the exercises [specifically morning pages]. Of those ten, seven have had books, movies, TV shows, and made out succesful.” 

Morning pages is a tactic for wannabe (like me) or struggling (also like me) creatives to help them get their juices flowing. The premise is simple. Wake up and write three pages of longhand before doing anything else (I typically walk my dog and make coffee first). It should all be stream of conscious. Spelling doesn’t matter. Logic doesn’t matter. Grammar doesn’t matter. Just explode onto the page with whatever comes to mind.

Since starting this routine my writing has drastically improved as has my mood and the overall joy I get from each day.

But in the last week my morning pages routine has extended past three pages and turned into 1 - 2 additional hours each morning in front of the computer. Doing things like typing notes, thoughts, and ideas from the day before. Checking my finances. Responding to email. Sitting down to write has morphed into working first thing in the morning and it’s been dragging on the rest of my day, and affecting my mood, my creativity, and my productivity.

I knew I needed to stop after three pages and go do something different, like exercise, instead of sitting at my computer. But I was reluctant to change. Even though it was negatively impacting the rest of the day, I enjoyed that time revising my essays, tweaking my website, and checking in on the markets. It felt productive and I didn’t want to give that up. But I needed to break the routine.

So, I convinced myself by saying try it. “Tomorrow, after you’re done with your morning pages, get up and workout. And if you don’t feel better, then tomorrow you can go back to your routine.”

I tried it, and I felt better. Today I got up, wrote my morning pages, ate, worked out, and then around mid-day jumped on the computer.

Part of why we’re all so reluctant to change is because we see it as permanent. And we don’t know how we’re going to feel if this new diet is the way we eat for the rest of our lives. Or this high intensity exercise class is how we’re going to stay active long term. When we project out this way, the change becomes intimidating and takes on a life of it’s own. 

In recent years I learned about a common saying in Alcoholics Anonymous. “I didn’t drink today.”

Don’t worry about tomorrow or the next day. Just think about today and what you know you need to do. Try it. And if it doesn’t work out, you can always go back or try something new.

Mediterranean Lentil Soup

It’s colddddd in Colorado, so I decided to make some soup. Last year it felt like I was making a batch of soup a week, but so far this year that hasn’t been the case. Mostly because we’ve been moving around so much, had family visiting. Just a lot going on. But the other day I remembered I had some dry lentils sitting in my pantry and thought they would be a nice change.

The original plan was to just cook them and add them to different dishes. Or just eat them on their own with a little olive oil and salt (my favorite way to have them). But then I thought, how about soup? A couple of days before I had made a nice vegetable/bone broth and I figured I could use that for my soup.

My fiancé found this awesome recipe, Mediterranean Lentil Soup, and voila, away we went.

This recipe is a nice alternative to the normal run of the mill soup I had been making. It’s nice because it has all the ingredients you would expect, like carrots, onion, and celery, but also spices like cumin, oregano, basil, and thyme, that I had never put in my soup before. And I’m not sure what exactly it does, but the lemon juice finishing touch adds a nice punch to the mix.

If you are looking for something a little more flavorful, than give this one a try.

Something I like to do is turn my vegetable soup into chicken soup by simply shredding some already cooked chicken and layering it over the top. My favorite way to cook chicken these days is in the slow cooker. With a pot full of soup and a container of chicken, chicken soup is as easy as one, two, three.

Permission and Knowing What’s Possible Can Change Lives

Permission and possibilities are two things that everyone needs to have if they want to be succesful. Permission to try something new, do it in a different way, or do something out of the ordinary. They also need to know that it’s possible, regardless of their situation or their beliefs. 

I’m re-reading The Power of Habit for the first time in 7 years, and the chapter Starbucks and the Habit of Success reignited this idea for me.

I found this quote from Howard Schulz to be particularly powerful.

“And I really, genuinely believe that if you tell people that they have what it takes to succeed, they’ll prove you right.”

Starbucks’ success has hinged on this belief, and has been a huge influence on the way they train their employees. They grant their employees permission to succeed, and they give them the knowledge to make it possible.

They don’t just tell their employees what to do, how to make a cup of coffee, or how to treat customers. They give them the tools to do so. They’ve developed a full curriculum around it. The LATTEE method is one example. It’s used to address angry customers.

Listen

Acknowledge

Take action

Thank them

Explain why the problem occurred

They also teach their employees how to properly give colleagues criticism, and a system for handling orders when the store gets very busy. One of their mottos is: They don’t serve coffee, they serve people.

They set their employees up for success by giving them permission to be great, and showing them how it’s possible.

The book outlines the example of one employee. A young man born to drug addicted parents. Before going to Starbucks he was unable to hold down a job. Because he grew up in a chaotic home where stolen cars would often be parked in the driveway, and he and his siblings didn’t know if today was the day they’d have to save their parents from another overdose, he struggled to control his emotions, and would frequently lash out at customers and colleagues.

No one ever gave him permission to be anything other than the son of drug addicts. And no one ever showed him it was possible to get out. Until he starting working at Starbucks and started to acquire tools necessary to be succesful in the world, and how to interact with other people.

People need to know that it’s possible to change, and they need to be shown how. I think that’s a key component for anyone growing up. Without permission, and without knowing what’s possible, people are left stuck with no hope of improving, and nothing to aspire to.

Kids need this knowledge to reach their full potential.

Great, Good, and Bad Employees

Every time I lay down for a massage, like I did today, I immediately ask myself “why don’t I do this more often?” As my body melts into the heated table, and my face settles into the support of the headrest, I begin to regret all those days that I convinced myself not to book one (usually because of the cost). And as the masseuse commences her work with gentle rubs, softening me up for an hour of much needed therapy, I tell myself “from now on I’m going to make this a regular thing.”

But almost as soon as I make that promise, it’s contradicted by the erratic and thoughtless work of the masseuse, who has ignored everything I told her, and reminds me why I always hesitate to commit to such a high ticket service. My expectations are almost never met. Nine out of ten times my experience doesn’t match the price I pay. And it’s for that reason that I put off such extravagance. 

In every profession there are three types of workers. Great ones, good ones, and bad ones. The great ones empathize with their clients. They know what they need without being told. The good ones listen to what their clients tell them they need, and get to work on addressing it. The bad ones have no ability to feel their clients, they’re not interested in hearing their clients, and they are only there to get a job done.

A great masseuse can sense what you need by touch. A good ones works on the problem areas you discussed beforehand. A bad masseuse is just there to follow their routine.

It’s not lost on me that complaining about a massage is a privilege. But I just think there is a lesson to be learned here. Not everyone can be great, but anyone can be good by just listening and being attentive. If you’re starting out in a career and you’re looking to move up the chain, stay focused on the needs of your clients. Hear what they are telling you, and check in regularly to make sure that you are addressing their concerns. Most times clients aren’t going to stop and tell you what you’re doing wrong.

Especially if they are anything like me. At the end of my massage I said thank you, and left a nice tip representative of her time and effort. But I will never book another service with them. It’s on you to make sure you’re doing a good job.

What can you eliminate?

Everyone talks about all the things you should do to optimize your life. They talk about all of the supplements to take. All of the hacks to incorporate into your day. The type, intensity, and frequency of exercise. But adding more to a busy life with limited capacity is a daunting task. Starting new routines and creating new habits requires consistency over a long period of time, and for that reason, for most people, they usually don’t stick.

That’s why I think that a much easier path is to eliminate the things from your life which do not serve you. Addition by subtraction. Remove what does not serve you and get back time and energy, and ultimately your health.

I think there are three things that almost everyone could eliminate tomorrow with minimal effort that would also drastically and immediately improving the quality of theirlife.

• Alcohol

• Social Media

• Added Sugar and Processed Food (“food that isn’t food”)

Anyone, in any situation, could eliminate those three things and instantaneously be on the road to a better, happier, more productive, version of themselves.

These three substances rob all of us of our mental, physical, and emotional health. They cause unwanted and undetected spikes in stress hormones, and deleterious chemical reactions. They are at the core of depression, anxiety, weight gain, and chronic disease, and therefore at the core of the health epidemic in this country.

And it’s not just our healthy that they wreck. These three substances act as sedatives, muting our intuition, causing lethargy, and interfering with our critical thinking. They block our motivation, and they silence our ambition. They convince us to check out, when we want to be tuned in.

Alcohol, social media, and foods that isn’t food, are collectively and directly responsible for the increased prevalence of disease and mortality. If we could eliminate these substances from our lives then we wouldn’t need to do anything else.

We wouldn’t need to be more active. We wouldn’t need a multi-vitamin or a handful of supplements. We wouldn’t need to view sunlight immediately upon waking up. We wouldn’t need to find ways to disconnect and be mindful. We wouldn’t need to do any of those things but we would, because we would feel such an immense physical, mental, and emotional improvement that it would become immediately clear to us that we wanted to do it all.

Alcohol, social media, and food that isn’t food are mentally, emotionally, and physically destroying us. If we can eliminate them, the rest will take care of itself.

Aligning Work with Expectations

We’re all guilty of it. Expecting things to get better without doing anything to help.

When I got back from a trip to Asia this past November, I realized that I had somehow injured my right shoulder. Depending on what position I put my shoulder in, I would feel a pinch and a jolt of pain. Even small movements like pulling the blankets over me at night sent a shock through my whole body. I don’t know how it started or when. The whole time I was away I was exercising and never felt even mild discomfort. So the only thing I could think of was something happened on the plane, or I grabbed our bags in an odd way and that set it off.

In the 3 months since I’ve been back, I’ve continued to exercise, while being careful to avoid any movements that hurt or aggravate my shoulder (a lot of running, skiing, and kettlebell swings). But I’ve done nothing proactive. I haven’t used heat or ice. I haven’t worked on my shoulder’s mobility. I haven’t done any rehab exercises. My strategy has mainly been focused on not doing anything to make it worse, and hoping for it to get better.

But it hasn’t improved. And despite doing nothing to help it, I expected by now it would.

I like to use physical examples to make points about how we all live our lives. Exercise, training, physical pain, provide tangible examples that are easier, in my mind, to grasp. If you want to finish a marathon in a certain time, then there are a certain number of miles you’ll need to run each week. There are certain speeds you’ll have to run during training. And it’s very easy to see come race day if you put the work in and what went wrong or right.

Contrast that to something more nebulous like trying to get a promotion at work. You could be the first one at the office very day. Finish all of your projects on time. Hit your monthly quotas. Receive positive feedback on your performance review. And still not get it. What went wrong?

Back to my shoulder. I think a lot of us expect improvement without actually putting in the effort that is required to improve. Not because we’re lazy or unwilling, but because sometimes it’s just easier to wish a problem away, or believe that things will just get better. Or sometimes we think we’re helping, like I did by avoiding movements that aggravated my shoulder, when in reality we’re not.

My shoulder is one example. An achilles injury I suffered 7 years ago that I also never properly rehabbed, expected to get better on its own, and still bothers me to this day, is another.

For a time after leaving my job in 2018, I thought that my dream job was going to just walk up and pinch me, or that I’d meet someone who wanted to run with one of my many ideas. But none of that has happened, even though I believed it would.

It took a few years for me to realize that anything I wanted was only going to come true if I made it happen. The same way I’ve realized over the last few days that my shoulder isn’t getting any better on it’s own, and I need to work on it.

So for the last few days I’ve been doing light shoulder rehab in the morning. A few exercises before I start my day that have helped with other similar injuries. It’ll likely be some time before I feel any improvement, or get back to 100 percent. But at least now I can say that my work is aligned with my expectations.

What’s something you’ve been dealing with and expecting to get better, but looking back haven’t put the work into? How could you align your work with your expectations going forward to realize your desired outcome?

Mike Benz thinks American Prosperity is in Jeopardy

I listened to Mike Benz on the Tucker Carlson show, and I’ve started his episode with Joe Rogan. I like to listen to the same person on different shows because the differing views and interviewing style of the hosts gives you slightly different insights and information.

But in this case I put the Rogan episode on immediately after because I wanted to make sure, to confirm, what I thought I heard Mike Benz saying on Tucker Carlson. And that is, once USAID is gone, as it is anticipated to be, then we are going to need to find new ways of manipulating foreign governments and overthrowing politicians who are unfriendly to the US. We’re going to need a new way of accomplishing these same goals so that the US can maintain its dominance in the world and continue to live the prosperous lives we’ve become accustomed to.

Things like cheap oil for cheap gas. Favorable import and export agreements. Our inventory of over 700 military bases around the world, many of which are on “hostile” soil in places such as Cuba and Syria. These are things that have been accomplished according to Mike Benz, in part, because of USAID.

Mike Benz says he has spent the last 8+ years blowing the whistle on all of the nefarious things that USAID has been involved in. Both domestically and abroad. According to him, and documents that have been brought to light in recent weeks, USAID has not been operating solely in the humanitarian capacity we all believed it was. The AID in USAID stands for Agency of International Development, a name that could take on many different meanings, but is apparently not AID the way we all think about it. Rather part of its budget has been used to influence foreign governments into our favor.

And now that the cover has been blown, instead of being elated that his work has played a role, Mike Benz is nervous that the current administration and its elected officials don’t have the experience or insight necessary to dismantle USAID and maintain the US stranglehold on the world. That without USAID funded protests, riots, information gathering, misinformation campaigns, and influence on foreign judicial systems, the US might not be as prosperous as it currently is.

Over the past year or more I’ve finally begun to understand what it means to live in America and be an American citizen. This awakening first after I learned about how United Fruit Company, a US company, successfully lobbied the US government to overthrow Guatemala’s democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz, in 1954. Arbenz was nationalizing land, reclaiming uncultivated land and redistributing it to poor peasants in the country. Unfortunately the reform bill greatly impacted United Fruit Company’s land holdings. [read: The Fish That Ate the Whale for more details]. The CIA ended up backing a coup that successfully ousted the president and installed a military dictator with close ties to the US government.

I learned how a similar playbook was used in Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power and nationalized American businesses. Sugar was Cuba’s main export and most sugar plantations were US owned. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro and secure American prosperity. [read: Cuba: An American History for the full history]. Or how the US has historically used its influence to keep coffee export prices down in South America, causing massive amounts of economic hardships in those countries [read: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and how it Transformed our World for more].

In more recent times I’ve read about the economic sanctions and oil embargoes placed on Venezuela with a stated aim of squeezing the “illegitimate” government of Nicolas Maduro. It’s merely coincidence that Venezuela has the world’s largest known oil reserve in the world. The sanctions and embargoes imposed on Venezuela have not brought legitimacy, instead they have crippled the economy and caused the great migration of Venezuelans to America seeking opportunity.

Or take this comment from Lindsey Graham telling you in plain detail why we really support the war in Ukraine. “They’re sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals in Ukraine”, Graham stressed. “They could be the richest country in all of Europe. I don’t want to give that money and those assets to Putin to share with China.”

If Trump and Israel succeed in displacing 2 million Palestinians that call Gaza home, and taking control of the land, it will be just one more example of the empire’s control.

At times during the interview Tucker Carlson pushed back saying why can’t we just use our power to promote peace and security. But at all times they regressed to the need of controlling foreign interests. It was shocking to hear the cavalier way in which two grown and educated men spoke about controlling the resources of other countries, and the fear they projected about the possibility of it coming to an end.

We claim to be the richest and most powerful country on earth because we promote freedom, democracy, and capitalism. That we are the best because we allow the best to come here and innovate. But that’s not really the case at all. We are the richest and most powerful nation on earth because we rob, rape, and plunder every other nation’s resources. 

I recently read Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia, in which I learned that since WWII Japan has not had a military. Their defense department is in place solely, as the name suggests, for defense. They are not allowed to be the aggressor in any war. It was part of the agreement that ended WWII. And up until learning that, I had never even considered that an army would be used for anything other than aggression abroad. That’s not something that was ever on my radar growing up in the US. We have the most powerful army and we use it often and loosely.

With the dismantling of USAID, and other peace talks happening right now, my hope is that we can finally start to turn the tide of who we are as a nation. That for once in my lifetime, and maybe in the last 100 years, our foreign policy could actually align to the principles we claim to promote. That we can use our wealth, power, and influence to promote peace, prosperity, and security both here at home and abroad. There are more than enough resources in the world for everyone to prosper. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone did.  

Squashing Uncertainty by Being Prepared

Next week my fiancé and I are snow shoeing 8 miles into the snow covered mountains to stay 2 nights at a small hut in the woods. And as the date of our departure approaches I find myself getting more and more nervous. Even contemplating if we should back out.

But why? I’ve done plenty of similar adventures in my life and they have all turned out to be amazing experiences. Even if there were periods of pain and discomfort I can’t name one I regret. Adventures like this is the reason I moved to Colorado.

It’s not the distance I’m worried about. 8 miles, 2,000 ft of elevation gain, is pretty mild for me, and for my fiancé (even though she wouldn’t admit it). We’ve done harder, longer, trips in Colombia and Switzerland. Trips where we had to carry more.

So what is it about this trip that has got me questioning why I wanted to do its in the first place? What strings is my resistance pulling in my head and how do I overcome them?

As I pondered it I realized the main concern is the uncertainty of it all, and that I didn’t know much about what we actually signed up for. I knew very little when I booked the hut, and I’d done no research since booking it. Instead I’ve just gone over and over it in my head guessing at what it might be like with no information. 

The “what ifs” we’re taking over. The “what ifs” that cause the most stress in life. 

But I’ve realized over the years that if you can take away the uncertainty, you can drastically reduce your stress, and greatly improve your chances of performing well. But it requires some work.

So yesterday I started doing some research, and already things are looking better. For one, I found out that the hike is actually 4 miles in, 4 miles out. I’d missed the “out and back” type when I looked the route up (most people hike to the cabin and come back the same day). Which is a nice relief because while 8 miles is in our wheelhouse, 4 miles means we can start later, take our time, and carry more comfort items.

I also watched a video and got to see the inside of the cabin. Relieving some stress about where we’d be sleeping and what we’d be sleeping on. I got a good look at the kitchen setup including the pots, pans, and utensils that are available. I also saw how the snow melt, our source for water, works. There are a couple of metal buckets you fill with snow and bring inside and set on top of the wood stove. Pretty straightforward.

I also looked back over the website to see what else is supplied so I could determine what to pack. Kindling, fire wood, toilet paper, sleeping pads, a camp stove, are all provided. It looks like we’ll need sleeping bags, pillows if we want them, and our sleeping bag liners. We also need a small propane tank for the stove. And of course as much food and snacks as we’re willing to carry.

The biggest concern which we have no control over remains the weather. Right now it looks like it’s hovering in the negative degrees. Brrr. But I found two different websites with detailed weather reports that I can follow leading up to our trip so we’re not walking in blind.

With all that information I now feel 10 times better about the trip and I’ve also been able to plan a couple of day hikes from the cabin for our one full day there. What we would do all day was another concern (god forbid we’d hang out with nothing to do) that is now alleviated.

Taking the uncertainty out of things, whether it’s presenting to a group of people, taking a test, going on a job interview, or going on a new adventure, is really the key to feeling confident and ready. Being prepared, having a plan, and knowing what to expect can take you from worried to excited. From timid to charismatic. When it comes to a big event, a little preparation makes all the difference. 

Homemade Granola

My fiancé and I hosted Christmas this year. Most of her family flew in from the east coast to celebrate with us. Her sister and brother-in-law were supposed to come and stay with us. But at the last minute they weren’t able to make the trip. In preparation for their stay we stocked the house with some essentials they like. One of them was granola.

We don’t normally eat granola. Most of it is of pretty poor quality and loaded with added sugar. But if there’s granola in the house you better believe that were going to eat it. And since her brother-in-law never showed up, we went to town chowing down on his granola.

Once it was gone we wanted more, but we didn’t want to buy the packaged stuff. So, we made our own.

Homemade Granola Recipe

My fiancé found this recipe. We’ve now made it twice. It delicious. But we have made a couple of slight modifications.

One, we added chia to ours. Chia is packed with healthy fats and fiber and is therefore a great addition to any baked foods.

Two, we added chopped up dates to ours and omitted the craisins.

Three, on the second go we ran out of maple syrup and used honey instead. I actually think it tastes better with honey.

One other thing we found helpful was to place the walnuts, almonds, coconut, chia, cinnamon, and salt into a food processor for a few pulses before adding it to the mixture. It helps to spread the flavors throughout the granola a little more.

But this recipe has for sure become a staple in our pantry.

Intuition vs. Resistance

Everyone has two voices. Which one do you listen to more? 

Voice 1 says: let’s cook.

Voice 2 says: let’s just order pizza, its been a long day. It would be so much easier.

Voice 1 says: let’s go to the gym.

Voice 2 says: you just got home from work, relax a little bit, unwind. You deserve it.

Voice 1 says: let’s read.

Voice 2 says: ok, but let’s check our phone first.

Voice 1 says: you know what would be really nice, if I bought my partner a nice set of earrings for her new piercings.

Voice 2 says: earrings are expensive, we’ve been spending too much money recently. Also, I don’t know which ones to get. Let’s do something else, something simpler, and cheaper. 

There’s so many conversations that take place in our heads every day. One voice is telling us what we need to be doing. It’s guiding us along our path towards our best life. The other voice is coming up with every excuse under the sun to convince you not to do it. It’s too risky. You’ve never done it before. You have time, it doesn’t need to be done today. 

Which voice are you listening to?

Listen to your first one, that’s your truth. Ignore the second one, that’s your resistance.