Workout journal 6/20/24

I mailed it in today. I have been doing a lot of manual labor, so I've been tired going into my workouts. Today I did a lot of manual labor, and I was dreading my workout.

But I knew I wanted to do it, even though it would be a struggle, and that it would make me feel better. So, I started thinking about how I could make it more beneficial and less dreadful.

I decided that I would really back off the weight from last week, and I would keep the whole thing to under 30 mins. It was already 6 pm, and I still needed to cook dinner.

So, that's what I did. I dropped the weight, and shortened my rest period. I put my phone on silent and just got through it.

It sucks to end Phase II having to modify the workout, but I know that in the long run, lightening the load and getting the workout done will be more beneficial.

Cheers to the end of Phase II. I'll circulate Phase III next weekend. Enjoy the week off. I know of at least one person who said they are looking forward to it. I am too.

Notes to self

Right or wrong

It’s not important whether you’re right or wrong. What’s important if recognizing when you’re wrong and correcting it as quick as possible. I think people put so much emphasis on trying to be right all of the time, but allow themselves to languish in doing the wrong thing.

Big things, and little things

I think what people miss the most is how important it is to do the little things right because they have implications into how you’re going to handle the bigger things. If you’re careless with the little things, then you’ll be careless with the big things. If you’re crass with the little things, then you’ll be crass with the big things. If you’re scared of the little things, then you’ll be scared of the big things. Use the little things to improve the big things.

I think that most people do a lot of different things, but very few continue to do them over and over again. A lot of people exercise, or start a new fitness plan, but very few continue with it past a few weeks or after they hit their goal. A lot of people cook, or make the time to prepare their food, but eventually it fizzles out and ordering delivery or eating out is just easier.

Everyone is not fine

Everyone is just pretending like their fine. We saw Bill Burr the other night. He had a joke about how guys are only allowed to be happy or fine (I forget the joke). But it’s not just guys. It’s everyone. We went to the movies tonight and the girl at the counter was reading This is where I leave you. A great book, that was made into a movie, that I read. I commented on the book to her and how much I enjoyed it. She ended up telling me that it’s been really good for her and really relatable because her father passed away a few years ago, and it’s been good to read and help her with her grieving process.

When she finished telling me her story, I told her I was sorry to hear about her father. She said thanks, but not to worry, she was fine.

I’m not a psychologist, but I could tell from our brief conversation that she was not fine. She couldn’t have been more than 20, and it was clear that the loss of her father at such a young age had impacted her. As it should. I don’t think there’s any age where it wouldn’t impact you, let alone while you’re still a kid. But for some reason she thinks she has to be fine. It’s a real problem in our society. It’s one that I’m guilty of as well.

Which is why I really try to tell the truth now as much as possible, and let out whatever it is I’m feeling that’s making me not fine. Fine is such a vanilla way to characterize how you’re feeling. No one who says they are fine is fine. It’s a cop out answer and it’s not a real feeling.

Cooking and eating

Part of the process of eating is preparing the food. So, if you are not preparing your meals, you are eating processed food. Even if someone makes it for you. You miss out on the benefits that come with being part of the preparation process. I don’t know what it is, but there is power in your body getting prepared to eat while you prepare the food.

On a deeper level, if the majority of your meals are not prepared from scratch by you. If you’re not perusing the aisles deciding what to buy. If you’re not scanning your refrigerator to decide what to prepare, then you never truly satisfy your needs. Because only when you control the meal, can you truly follow your intuition, and feed what you’re body needs.

Cancer and weeds

Cancer is like weeds. Or weeds are like cancer. You don’t need to knock it all out in one shot. But you do need to keep beating it back, and never let them take over the yard. You also don’t need to blitz them with chemicals. You just need to maintain and stay ahead. Cancerous cells are in all of us. Our body is fighting a constant battle, and we need to help it.

It’s true sometimes an infestation or a non-native species invades, but that’s the exception, not the rule.

Meal Idea: Crock Pot Chicken, Broccoli and Zucchini

I got back from a morning of skiing and I was hungry. I ate a small bowl of chili on the mountain, a coffee and a RXBar. I was looking for some heavy nourishment. This is the bowl I went with.

• 1 handful of crock pot chicken

• 1 handful of boiled broccoli

• 1 handful of zucchini sautéed with garlic and onion

• 1/4 sliced avocado

• Finish with:

• salad dressing from Jen’s parents and red wine vinegar on the chicken

• Ume plum vinegar on the broccoli

• Chopped raw red onion, salt and onion powder and a few cracks of black pepper across the whole dish

Enjoy.

Meal Idea: Add Chicken and Avocado to Vegetable Soup

I’ve been making a lot of soup recently. Once I found out how easy it was, I’ve basically been making it ever since. This week we made a version with kidney beans instead of lentils, and added mushrooms.

I’ve also been continuing to make a whole chicken in the slow cooker.

Today for lunch I finished off the soup, added chicken, sliced avocado and raw red onion. I finished it with a drizzle of fig balsamic vinegar, a drizzle of red wine vinegar, sea salt and onion powder.

It really is delicious.

Sardine and Egg Scramble

This one is sure to be a hit.

I opened a pack of sardines the other day and they were smoked and not skinless or boneless. If you’ve eaten sardines you know this makes it tough. So I didn’t eat them and instead put them in the refrigerator for later use.

Tonight I decided to put them into a 2 egg scramble with avocado, rice, onion and garlic. I tried to further hide the taste with sweet baby rays hot sauce and primal buffalo sauce. Mission accomplished

I accompanied the dish with brussels sprouts and asparagus. It turned out really nice.

Full Body Home Workout

Here’s another low intensity bodyweight workout for you.

Perform each exercise back to back to back. No breaks until after jumping jacks (the last exercise). Then take as long as you need and then do it again. I ran through it three times with 60-90 seconds in between rounds. Three rounds should take 30 - 40 minutes.

If you’ve been hitting the weights hard then this will be a nice change of pace and feel almost therapeutic. If you’re looking for something efficient and effective to do without leaving your house, then this is a good routine to try. Running through one round can also be an efficient and effective warm up.

Enjoy

Exercise - Rep/Time

Single leg push up 20

Side plank thread the needle 10 each

Kickstand D/L 10 each

Bird dog isometric 30 sec each

Kneeling resistance band row 20

Bicycle crunch 30

Side plank resisted clams 15 each

Flutter kicks 40

Underswitch 10 each

Protein Skepticism

Junk food is not health food just because you add “protein” to it

The newest trend in big food is to add protein to processed foods in order to pass them off as healthy, and sell them to people who have been programmed to believe protein = health.

The first product like this that caught my attention was Kudos Protein Popcorn, who has a sponsorship with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Their slogan is: “Snacking shouldn’t have to be a guilty pleasure.” Kudos Popcorn has 23 ingredients. Feels guilty.

The second place I saw it was at my gym. Next to the pre-made protein shakes, a health hazard in their own right, is a shelf stocked with Protein Pop-Tarts and Protein Chips.

Most recently I was at CVS picking up a prescription when I saw a basket full of protein chips manufactured by Quest. I always suspected that Quest bars and Quest as a company were pure trash, and this just confirmed it. Quest “Protein Chips” have 25 listed ingredients.

It’s really regrettable that these companies have decided to latch onto the protein programming we’ve all grown up with. The idea that we need to consume copious amounts of protein (anywhere from .7 grams - 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight) in order to grow muscle, and maintain muscle mass. It’s conditioning that I’ve bought into for most of my life.

I’ve always had a pantry stocked with whey and casein protein powder. And I’ve always chosen meals rich in protein. But it’s a programming that I’ve become skeptical of recently, and have started to reject.

My skepticism started to grow the more I learned about the Blue Zones populations of people. In these parts of the world where people live the longest and most active lives free of chronic disease, where it’s common to live into your 90s while still tending to your garden, working, and socializing, there is no emphasis on protein consumption.

In fact, in these cultures, protein is the side dish, an after thought, not the focal point of any meal.

Further, protein mainly come in the form of plants, beans, legumes, fish, and fermented foods. Meat is eaten only on occasion.

I think that excess consumption is not only unnecessary, but I think the conditioning to eat more protein is a major contributor to our health epidemic.

Protein in America is often consumed in the form of red meat, which is typically processed into a hamburger, sold sandwiched between an ultra processed white bread bun, with a side of deep fried french fried dripping in vegetable oil, with a side of sugar in the form of a soda.

I think that the pursuit of more protein, attempting to hit the recommended goals mentioned before, leads to overeating, and therefore overconsumption of calories. And I think that for the majority of people consuming a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is just too much for their level of activity (inactivity). Over 60 percent of people fail to get the minimum daily amount of exercise recommended by the federal government.

Meaning that all of that protein is not being utilized to repair muscles and instead is turning to fat in people’s body’s.

It’s a shame that we’ve been programmed to consume protein in excess. And it’s beyond shameful for companies like Quest to take advantage of this conditioning just to turn a profit, knowing full well that protein in tortilla chip form, is not actually protein. And it’s disgraceful for a company like the UFC, a company that showcases some of the best athletes in the world, to accept sponsorship dollars from a company like Kudos, knowing full well that their viewers are being led to believe that their athletes consume Kudos Protein Popcorn as part of their diet.

It’s sick.

Meals & Recipes: Wild Salmon, Broccoli, Zucchini and Carrots

I try to cook at least one ingredient per meal. I think that the effort of cooking in preparation for eating helps prepare your digestive tract for the meal to come.

In this dish the salmon, broccoli, and zucchini were all cooked in prior days. But I had 3 carrots that were getting soft, so I decided to cook them this morning to add to my breakfast.

I went with a simple recipe.

• 3 chopped carrots

• 1 tbsp of olive oil

• 2 pinches of sea salt

• 1/2 tsp of onion powder

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp of chili powder

• 2 cloves of garlic chopped

• 1 slice of red onion chopped

Mix everything in a bowl and then add the contents to a pot preheated to lo-med heat. Spread the carrots evenly and cover. Cook for 10 minutes undisturbed.

These carrots came out really tasty and perfectly tender. Add them to any dish.

Two Voices

I have two voices in my head. I refer to them as Voice 1 and Voice 2. Voice 1, true to its name, is the first voice I hear in my head. It tells me what I need. It’s in tune with my intuition. It knows when I’m hungry. When I need to exercise. When I need to eat. And when I need to work. It tells me when I should be loving, compassionated, open, and understanding. It tells me when I need time alone to recharge. When I need to read, write, or disconnect. Voice 1 keeps me on my path.

Voice 2, on the other hand, serves to contradict everything that Voice 1 says, and it fills my head with doubt, fear, and reasons to ignore Voice 1. Voice 2 is my voice of “should.” You should do this. You shouldn’t do that. Voice 2 is the devil on my shoulder, but not because he’s telling me to do anything that’s wrong or bad. But because Voice 2 serves exclusively to knock me off my path.

There is no right or wrong between the two. There’s only the observation that when I follow Voice 1, that when I go with that first thought that pops into my head, my days and life are better.

Breakfast: Sardine Omelette and Lentil Bowl

I’ve really been enjoying putting sardines in my omelette. I love sardines on their own but in an omelette they take on a different flavor and role in my dish.

I also beefed up the omelette this morning with avocado and red onion.

I’ve found lentils to be a food to start my day. They provide such a good balance of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates. I mixed my lentils this morning with roasted brussels sprouts, raw garlic, and ginger (left over from sushi the other night so why not).

I finished the whole dish with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and fig balsamic vinegar.

A great way to start the day.

I’ll vote for whoever will get the bathrooms open

Access to restrooms offers a glimpse into the successes and failures of society. When a store no longer thinks it’s “safe” to keep their restrooms open to the public, to the customers, then we have a problem.

I was just in the grocery store and I had to pee. I went to the bathrooms and found three doors labeled, Men, Women, Family, all required door codes to get in. They all also had signs posted that read “No Public Restrooms.”

Well I had a cart filled with close to $100 worth of groceries. Clearly I’m not the “public” in this sign.

But when I went and asked the cashier for the code so I could use the bathroom, I was told “there are no public restrooms.” I had left my cart by the bathroom and came to the cashier empty handed, so surely she assumed I had just come in off the street.

I told her my cart was by the bathroom. She said “I understand, but there’s no public restrooms. I’ll call the manager.”

The manager came out of the back to greet me. “I’m sorry we don’t have public restrooms,” she said. To which I replied I’m not the public, I’m shopping here, and you very clearly have three restrooms that could be used.

“I’m sorry,” she reiterated, “it’s for our safety.”

I’ll save you the rest of the story other than to say I was fucking pissed and I didn’t get to go pee.

All across the country now you’ll see signs that read “No Public Restrooms,” the last like of defense for store owners looking to keep homeless drug addicts from soiling their bathrooms or camping out in there.

Rather than addressing the issue, that more and more people in this country find themselves addicted to drugs and living on the streets, we do things like close the bathrooms.

Now this might seem like a trivial thing, or something that only “privileged” people get to complain about, but the truth is it’s a symptom of a much bigger issue in our society. An issue that NO ONE in any position of leadership cares to address. It doesn’t impact them, so why fix it?

It’s the same type of symptom that forces working class people who take the bus to their job to stand and wait at the bus stop because some homeless drug addict decided that bench would be their new home.

It’s the same type of symptom that allows 40 percent of food in this country to go to waste, while 44 million people suffer food insecurity, millions more suffer nutrition insecurity, and families are forced to wait outside inline just to get food.

It’s the same symptom that actually forces whole stores to shut down in communities.

I’m so sick of the nonsense battles that politicians play. Abortion. Gun rights. The border. They pretend like those are the battles they’re taking on and they do a good job of recruiting people to argue for them. Meanwhile those “issues” never get resolved, and the population is distracted as the country rots from the inside out.

When I was in high school I remember the platform that the student president often ran on was: getting paper towels in the bathroom and getting rid of those paltry hand dryers (this is before Dyson got into the hand drying business).

It’s the little things that matter. That’s why I’ll vote for the candidate who says they will get the bathrooms open. Because to get the bathrooms open means addressing the growing incidence of homelessness and drug addiction, as well as safety for people working in the stores.

Everything else is just nonsense.

Lunch: Chicken and Berry Arugula Salad

I had a big bowl of fiber last night. A lot of beets and brussels sprouts. Too much of anything is a bad thing and so I woke up with an aversion to fibrous vegetables. Instead my body craved something light.

I put together this salad for lunch: arugula, sautéed mushrooms, chicken, blueberries, raspberries, avocado, tofu, red onion, almonds and walnuts.

These ingredients still pack a fiber punch, but it’s much milder than what a bowl of beets and brussels sprouts will do to your stomach. The nuts and arugula are more gut clearing than gut filling.

I finished the dish with 1 tbsp of olive oil, red wine vinegar, fig balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and a few pinches of sea salt.

I did an intense leg workout right before, so the little bit of fructose from the berries is enough to stem that sugar/carbohydrate craving my depleted body is feeling. Cheers.

There’s No Way to Guarantee Success

But you can give yourself the best shot.

A few years ago a buddy invited me to attempt a summit of Mt. Rainier in Washinngton State. I said yes without hesitation. But I knew nothing about the adventure that lied ahead.

It turns out that at 14,410 ft Mt. Rainier is one of the highest mountains in the lower 48 states, is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous U.S., and it is therefore one of the more technically difficult to climb.

One of our guides said that she thinks it’s more challenging than Mt. Everest which stands at over 29,000 ft. I knew none of this.

When I agreed to join my assumption was that we would be doing something akin to the backpacking trip that my buddy and I had met on a couple of years earlier. That was a 7-day trek around Torres del Paine national park in Patagonia. I found out quickly that this trip would not be at all like that.

When you’re attempting to summit a mountain peak like Mt. Rainier there’s a lot you need to know. You need to understand how to walk in crampons over glacier crevasses. You need to know proper ice axe arrest technique to prevent yourself from falling off the mountain cliff, and dragging down everyone with you in the process. And you need to understand how to hike through glacier, ice, and rock while tethered to other people, with a pack on.

That’s the real life saving stuff, and speaks nothing to the challenge of hiking at elevation with 30 - 40 lbs on your back. Proper nutrition and hydration. Sleeping in a tent in freezing cold conditions. Pooping in a bag for two days while your privates are exposed to snow and the cold. 

This is all a long way of saying that success, getting to the peak, relies on a lot going right. And it relies heavily on having the proper mindset.

After the challenge in front of us became clear, my buddy and I were talking about it a couple of nights before over dinner. He said something to the effect of “do you think we’ll make it to the top?” To which I replied, “what other choice do we have?”

A few days later I was one of two people from the group who made it to the top. A lot had to go right. In addition to everything mentioned above I was lucky to be coming off a 6 week cycling challenge that put me in some of the best shape of my life. That challenge, along with a couple of years of endurance racing experience, had taught me about nutrition and hydration, and how to push past physical limitations.

But I can’t help but think that having the mindset of “what other choice do we have?” played the most important role for me. Climbing Mt. Rainier was one of the most challenging things I have ever done in my life, and there were many instances where I stopped and asked myself “what the fuck am I doing here?” But each time I made sure to follow it up with “getting to the top.”

It’s not that I didn’t have doubt, pains, fears, or concerns, because I had all of those in spades. But I never allowed them to take a permanent or even long term residence in my mind. All of these doubts and feelings were quickly cast aside by the positive thought of having no choice but making it to the top.

Fish for Breakfast

This meal goes out to my buddy Darren. We were having a conversation about breakfast, prompted by his suspicion that Kashi might not be as healthy as they told him and might actually be processed food. I sent him this picture and told him that’s what I eat for breakfast. His response was “the fish is a little much for breakfast.” Maybe. But it doesn’t mean it’s not delicious!

Ingredients:

Vegetable soup (carrots, celery, onions, garlic, crushed tomato, white beans, green lentils, zucchini, in homemade vegetable broth), with wild sockeye salmon, almonds, walnuts, and beets, topped with sriracha and salt.

Hospital Vending Machines Push Poison

My girlfriend found herself in the hospital this week having a procedure done (she’s okay). After her procedure they kicked her out of recovery to wait in the lobby. She snapped these three pictures.

The next time any politician tells you that they’re protecting you by invading another country, killing terrorists, or sending billions of dollars to fight anti democracy forces in the form of say Russia, just remember this.

If they actually cared about you, they would pass immediate and sweeping bans on processed foods and the chemicals and additives that go into them. 

If they cared even a little bit about you, they would pass immediate and sweeping bans on processed foods, like Lunchables, being served for lunch in schools. 

If they cared even a little bit, they would pass immediate and sweeping bans on processed foods being available in hospitals. They would not allow the drug/product/garbage that is the proven cause of most illnesses to be available in the very place where people with such illnesses go to be treated.

But they don’t care, so stop giving them credit like they do. 

If it doesn’t make them money (i.e. war, pharmaceutical drugs, big food and big ag) then they don’t care. They will never ever reign in any of those industries for the precise reason that they line the pockets of every leader in this country and most countries around the world. 

The next time your favorite politician tells you he’s doing something for your safety, something that usually involves stripping away a person in a foreign country’s safety, ask yourself why he/she allows poison to be sold in hospitals?

It’s time to stop believing what you hear and believing what you see.

Artificial Sweeteners II

My unflavored LMNT electrolytes came the other day and they taste like nothing. Which I guess shouldn’t have been surprising but it was. Based on how strong the flavored varieties were, I assumed that the unflavored would still carry something. But it’s got nothing.

It just made it even more apparent to me how powerful artificial sweeteners are. We’re talking about less than a tsp of powdered mix crammed with an overwhelming amount of flavor.

That tells me that the stevia extract they’re using, an artificial sweetener that’s purported to be natural, must be refined down to the most potent parts to achieve such an insane level of taste in such a small amount.

Which tells me, or reaffirms to me, that this shit is not good for you! It’s certainly not good for me.

I always wonder why companies have no balls when it comes to this stuff. I mean LMNT is selling electrolytes. Presumably their market is people who are active, hence why they need to replenish electrolytes, and therefore health conscious. Couldn’t they do away with the “flavor” and sell something that’s actually purely good for you, without the add garbage?

Couldn’t they just stick to selling unflavored? I know why they wouldn’t, money. But it would be nice if one day a company stood up and said, “I don’t give a fuck if our growth is slow, or we never become rich, we’re going to stick to our principles and grind it out.”

Unfortunately that never happens anymore. And I guess I’m asking too much of a company that packages sodium, potassium, and magnesium, and sells them for ~$1.50 per. It just reiterates to me the fact that everything is better when you do it yourself. And in particular when it comes to what you put into your body. Only you can control the contents. Thinking someone else, or a company for that matter, cares as much as you do is pissing into the wind.

Artificial sweeteners can’t be good for you

You know how I know? Because they taste so damn good. When I was buying vanilla whey protein powder, I looked forward to drinking one, sometimes two, shakes everyday. But when I switched to flavorless whey, it became more chore than enjoyment. And now a few months after switching, it’s the rare occasion that I even drink one.

For a brief period I tried to make my shakes taste better by adding pure cocoa, coffee, or even drips of honey, butt nothing compared to the Stevia leaf extract they were adding to the powder.

Recently I’ve been drinking LMNT electrolytes. I bought the chocolate variety box. Chocolate chai, mint, and raspberry. They too contain Stevia leaf extract, which once again has made a powdered drink the highlight of my day, which has also triggered me to switch to unflavored. It just can’t be good for you.

I love food. I love to eat. I eat mostly real foods in their whole natural form. Yet there is not one food that I crave the way I crave these artificial drinks. Medjool dates would be a close second but as delicious as they are they don’t evoke the same visceral obsession as artificial sweeteners. How could that be good?

Whether its Stevia, date sugar, or monkfruit sweetener, I just can’t picture a scenario where it’s benefitting your health.

So I’m sticking to real food, real flavors, and unflavored processed food. I don’t think I can go wrong.

High Fat and Fiber Savory Breakfast

For some reason oatmeal is also served as a sweet dish. But my favorite way to enjoy oatmeal is savory. Like in this dish. I prefer it mostly because I go for savory over sweet normally, and I also don’t think starting the day with a lot of sugar is a good idea.

Plus, in this dish you get the added benefit of protein from eggs and healthy omegas from olive oil to start your day.

Ingredients:

Oatmeal, chia, cocoa nibs, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, peanut butter, two eggs over easy 🍳, topped with salt, olive oil, and sriracha.

Who’s Really in Charge?

Click here: OneSource Health, April 21, 2024

“We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong.  The amount of work is the same.”

Carlos Castaneda

Volunteer Appreciation Party

This past week I went to the We Don’t Waste headquarters for a Speakers Bureau training. We Don’t Waste is a Denver based non-profit that recovers food that would’ve otherwise been sent to the landfill and re-routes it to the public through free mobile food markets, and partnerships with food banks, food pantries, and shelters.

The speaker’s bureau is part of their education program. Volunteers go to schools, businesses, and households, and attend fun events like Slow Food Denver, to talk about food waste, strategies to mitigate it, it’s impact on the planet, food insecurity, and more.

One example I love is food audits that are conducted in school cafeterias, which raises awareness and educates students on ways they can help with fun strategies like share bins. Here students can exchange food they don’t want for something they do, limiting the likelihood of unwanted food going to waste.

Here are a few things I learned that really stood out to me.

• It takes 1 gallon of water to produce 1 almond. Almond fields need to be completely flooded.

  • 21 percent of our water supply is used to grow food.

• “1 bad tomato can ruin the bunch.” If a retailer (i.e. grocery store) finds 1 moldy tomato on a pallet or truck full of tomatoes, they can turn the whole shipment away, relegating it to the landfill.

• “Expiration dates” have nothing to do with safety

  • Sell By = how long the product can be displayed

  • Use By = last day of peak quality

  • Best Before = last date of peak flavor or quality

• The difference between composting and a landfill is oxygen. Compost is regularly mixed allowing oxygen in. A landfill remains stagnant which produces greenhouse gases like methane and CO2.

  • It can take 25 years for a head of lettuce to decompose in a landfill

• Carrots and celery like to be wet. If you store them in water, they could last 2 weeks before wilting and softening.

It’s an exciting company to be a part of. They’re just 15 years old and they’re doing really big and fun things that are driving change.

Cheers to your practice.

James.

Three Headlines That Prove the Point

• The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now

• Lunchables under fire after reports of concerning lead, sodium levels

• How do you create your own ‘Blue Zone’? Here are 6 tips

The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now

If the health epidemic and increasing rate of mortality in America are any indication of the inefficiency of our healthcare system, then perhaps asking physicians to squeeze one more task into their 10-minute office visit isn’t a good idea.

In recent years The White House has called “fire-arm injuries” an epidemic, prompting “leaders” to call on physicians to screen their patients with questions like, “Do you have access to firearms inside or outside of the home?”

In 2021 there were 115,000 non-fatal fire-arm injuries, and 48,830 gun related deaths in America. In the same year deaths from preventable diseases like heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes dwarfed those figures by a 10x multiple.

Fire-arm injuries and deaths are symptoms of an unwell society and should not be taken lightly. Which is exactly why someone with a better track record should be put in charge of this epidemic.

Sources:

The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now

Leading Causes of Death

Fast Facts: Firearm Violence and Injury Prevention

Lunchables under fire after reports of concerning lead, sodium levels

In Metabolical, author Robert Lustig, MD, MSL puts it like this: “It’s not what’s in your food that matters, it’s what’s been done to your food.” Unless your Kraft Heinz’s Lunchables, in which case both matters.

Lunchables is a processed food snack that is marketed towards children as “healthy” because of the “protein / fat / carb ratio” it contains.

Through recent lobbying efforts Kraft Heinz was able to get Lunchables approved by the School Nutrition Association (“SNA”), making it part of the daily lunch offering for 30 million students. Essentially handing Kraft Heinz the keys to our most vulnerable and impressionable market.

In order to get approved, the SNA required Kraft Heinz to add more “protein” and “whole grains” to the Turkey, Cheddar, Cracker Stacker. Here’s the formulation:

“Ingredients: Roast White Turkey Cured - Smoke Flavor Added (White Turkey, Water, Potassium Lactate, Contains Less than 2% of Modified Cornstarch, Salt, Dextrose, Carrageenan, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Diacetate, Potassium Salts, Sodium Ascorbate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Sodium Nitrite, Smoke Flavor); Cheddar Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product (Milk, Water, Milkfat, Milk Protein Concentrate, Whey, Whey Protein Concentrate, Sodium Citrate, Salt, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid as a Preservative, Cheese Culture, Oleoresin Paprika [Color], Enzymes, Annatto [Color], with Sunflower Lecithin Added for Slice Separation); Crackers (Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil Shortening Canola Oil and/or Fractionated Palm Oil, and/or Soybean Oil, and/or Palm Oil], Sugar, Contains Less than 2% of Salt, Baking Soda, Soy Lecithin, Natural Type Flavor).”

Sounds healthy, right? How many ingredients did you get through before you stopped reading?

When will we learn that companies like Kraft Heinz and Nestlé, who was recently caught adding sugar to infant formula in poor countries, shouldn’t be allowed around our children. And when will someone in a position of power do something about it?

40 percent of all food in this country gets wasted. Real whole foods like fruit, vegetables, and lean meats are being dumped into landfills every single day. If we wanted to get high quality real food into the hands of every child in this country it could be done in the blink of an eye.

The problem is the people at the highest levels couldn’t give a shit.

Sources:

Lunchables under fire after reports of concerning lead, sodium levels

Metabolical, Robert Lustig, MD, MSL

HOW LUNCHABLES ENDED UP ON SCHOOL LUNCH TRAYS

Nestlé adds sugar to infant milk sold in poorer countries, report finds

How do you create your own ‘Blue Zone’? Here are 6 tips

I just have to rant for a minute on this one because it falls into my newfound skepticism that most of the longevity, healthspan, and lifespan advice is bullshit. I still read and listen to it, but I’m following it less and less recently.

And the reason is because I learned about The Blue Zones.

For people in The Blue Zones, there is no special trick. There’s no special diet. Nobody counts macros or how much they exercised and at what intensity. No one takes supplements or vitamins or follows any special routine.

All they do is live, filling their days with things that bring them joy. Like time with friends and family. Time in the garden growing food and flowers. Maintaining a mindfulness practice, playing board games, and cooking.

To worry about prolonging your life would mean missing out on it.

That’s why recently whenever I see an article or a headline like this one, I chuckle to myself. We think that we can deduce a whole way of life down to “6 Tips,” a new supplement or drug, or a better routine, which misses the whole point.

Accept the present by letting go of the future.

Sources:

How do you create your own ‘Blue Zone’? Here are 6 tips

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Man, I’ve been making my own vegetable broth for a few months now and it has completely changed my soup game. Hopefully you can see from this picture just how rich that broth is. And believe me, it tastes as good as it looks. The best part is how easy it is. You can see how to do it here.

But the thing I love about making a vegetable soup, is that it is really the perfect base for any meal. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. And you can add anything you want to it, like I did with chicken thighs and garbanzo beans for this dish.

Ingredients:

Baked chicken thighs, homemade vegetable soup (carrots, celery, garlic, onions, white beans, in a homemade broth), topped with olive oil, salt, and sriracha.