Category: Health

Diet, Government, Health

MAHA Saves Your Life With Red Dye Ban

You may not realize it, but you owe a huge thank you to RFK Jr. I’m not embellishing at all when I say that he may very well have saved your life. Banning artificial dyes might be a death blow to evil Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Ag, Big Oil et al. and puts us on a road to healthy living. It’s not hyperbole to say that getting rid of Red Dye #40 may cut obesity rates in the United States by 83%. Seriously – you can look it up on Instagram. As the smarmy boss Bill Lumbergh in Office Space often said, “Mmmm, Yeeeah”….

I’m just going to have to say it – RFK Jr. has to be Trump’s worst cabinet pick. Trump got bamboozled by a glorified Wellness Influencer (TM). Well, to be fair he needed JFK’s voting block and figured HHS would be a do no harm consolation prize in exchange. The problem with Wellness Influencers is that they drift somewhere in between uninformed but well intentioned, to full on grifter and snake oil salesman. I was willing to give RFK Jr. benefit of the doubt until I listened to his speech describing his ban of artificial food dyes.

Look, I’m a fan of science. Actual science, driven by the Scientific Method should be the gold standard. And when talking about human health we should rely primarily on human outcome data, not mechanistic, in vitro, or rodent studies to make big decisions. Crazy, right? What do the actual human outcome studies say about something? Preferably a meta analysis of a large number of studies.

This is where RFK Jr. lost me – in his speech he spouts numbers and statistics that are made up and/or completely misleading in order to make his point. He’s the master of conflating correlation with causation and stating it as fact. In other words he uses the exact playbook the Wellness Influencers utilize. He even had a bunch of them there with him – Mark Hymen, The Food Babe, Calley Means. They’re all experts at taking something that has a kernel of truth and using that to extrapolate blanket statements about a particular subject that very few people will ever read the actual studies or ask questions. They get away with it because nobody in the media will ever bother to question them. Why would they – it’s all about health, right?

Here’s the first example that jumped out of RFK Jr. using extremely misleading data. He stated in his speech, “There was zero spent in this country treating chronic disease when my uncle was president. Today it’s about $1.8 trillion annually. It’s bankrupting our nation. 74% of American kids cannot qualify for military service. How are we going to maintain our global leadership with such a sick population?”

Wow, that sounds bad! Of course we should do something! Here’s the sleight of hand that happens – the 74% figure is true (it’s actually 77%). The problem is that in the context of the “chronic disease” he’s addressing, only 18% of kids are disqualified due to obesity or other health issues. The rest are disqualified due to criminal records, drug use, tattoos and ear gages, inability to pass the basic academic tests, etc… So he’s completely misleading the public with a false statistic to make his point sound more dramatic.

In the world of science, that’s malfeasance. He’s a smart guy. I don’t believe it was by accident because he does it over and over again. His speech is rife with that sort of thing. It’s cherry picking data to support your opinion – the classic Wellness Influencer/Grifter move. Once do you start doing that regularly it’s impossible to take anything you say seriously. If he were the run of the mill TikTok influencer I wouldn’t care. I have the choice to believe Gary Brecka, The Glucose Goddess, Bobby Parish, or Dr. Berg if I want. I don’t have a choice when the HHS Secretary is using bad or cherry picked data to make decisions.

His decision to ban his list of artificial dyes is projected to cost industrial production somewhere between the high hundred millions to low billion dollars in retooling, labeling, regulation compliance, and supply chain disruption/procurement changes. The current guess is a 10-15% cost increase passed on to consumers.

All for what? A few nebulous studies that say ultra high doses of some dyes might lead to hyperactivity in kids? Really, that’s it? Ah but the EU banned those dyes, why wouldn’t we? Did you know that many of those dyes ARE used in the EU, just under a different name? Or that many of the “natural” dyes used in the EU are banned by the U.S.? Did you know some of the red dye substitutes the EU uses are derived from cochineal insects (Dactylopius coccus) and that resulting acid is a red anthraquinone glycoside, and is often used as a sodium or calcium salt for solubility. That sounds like a yummy additive for your kids yogurt (it’s in cosmetics as well).

So the first move out of the gate for the MAHA movement is to ban something that I guarantee nobody even thought about prior to this election cycle, to fix an problem that nobody can actually prove is impacting anyone, at an enormous cost to the consumer. Way to go MAHA! But at least my ingredients are “natural” now and not some scary sounding chemical name. Pssst – everything is a chemical, even natural things.

I honestly appreciate that the Administration wants to make America healthy again. It should be a priority. But blaming my obesity on Nabisco and ultra palatable foods is like blaming my speeding tickets on Ford because my car is capable of going 120 MPH. Twinkies were invented in 1930 and the calorie content is the same today as it was then (yes, I looked it up). The reason we didn’t have an obesity crisis back then and we do now is multi-faceted… but I guarantee some mysterious chemical and processing done by an evil food cabal is not the root cause. Lack of physical activity, advertising, portion size, mental health, and body positivity movements come way ahead of chemicalphobia in the list of reasons.

I don’t know what the thinking was behind attacking food dyes as the first priority for MAHA, but it was a bad look. Coming out with a gaggle of Wellness Influencers, pseudoscience, and questionable statistics does not inspire confidence.

I can hardly wait until he goes after seed oils. The Wellness Influencers will be barking like performing seals, overjoyed that they’ve mandated deep frying french fries in beef tallow. It’s all about health you know.

Daily Life, Diet, Government, Health

Are You Sure You Want To Ban That?

It’s the buzzing that I hate the most. The ridiculous LED bulbs I’m required to have makes my tinnitus worse and they flicker in a weird way. We live in a hundred year old house with older non LED compliant dimmer switches and wiring connections that I’m sure aren’t the best. Good old incandescent bulbs worked just fine. Unfortunately the Bush administration decided that in the name of energy efficiency the federal government would ban incandescent light bulbs. An incandescent bulb costs something like .60 cents a day to operate. If I can afford it, why can’t I use whatever type of lightbulb I want? Clearly the government knows better than you. Besides, we have to save all those watts for the mandated electric vehicles we’re dumping on the grid.

Plastic bags. Straws. Vehicle auto-stop. Light bulbs. The government loves to regulate things. The federal register for 2024 is over 100,000 pages. They’ve added over 3,000 new regulations just this year. Every single physical object you encounter in your daily life is impacted by some sort of regulation. Either how it’s manufactured, shipped, packaged, sold, or used is regulated by the government.

As a certified contrarian and libertarian-ish small government person, I want the least regulation possible. I don’t want big brother deciding for me what sort of light bulb I can have. Should the government impose some regulations? Of course. Preventing Walmart from selling schedule one narcotics is probably a good thing. Keeping heavy industrial chemicals out of our waterways makes me happy. The problem is that regulations are a slippery slope. You start with good intentions and the next thing you know you have ridiculous EPA mandated plastic gas can spouts that nobody can operate. (I’ve spilled way more gas filling my lawn mower with those stupid spouts than I ever did with the old school ones)

Mrs Troutdog and I had a discussion about this last night in the context of RFK Jr. and banning “poisons and toxins” from our food. She’s all for it. MAHA all the way. Fuck that yellow dye number 5. She was not pleased that I didn’t agree. My argument is that you need to be careful what you wish for. The law of unintended consequences is always a factor.

Take RFK Jr’s desire to force soda companies to remove high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and go back to “regular” sugar. Sugar sweetened coke (Mexican coke) has more calories and more sodium. Is that really what you want? Do you really think people consuming multiple sodas a day are worried about HFCS? If you think I need to be protected from HFCS, what’s next? There is no dose of alcohol that’s healthy. Alcohol has a higher health cost to the nation each year than drinking soda and HFCS. Should we ban alcohol? How about tobacco? Apples contain cyanide. Time for an apple ban? Perhaps we should mandate maximum serving sizes at restaurants? Nobody is allowed to serve more than 800 calories per plate. Why is Starbucks even allowed to sell a 600 calorie Frappuccino? So sorry Dunk’n Donuts, your time is up. Americans are fat and unhealthy, so clearly we can’t be trusted to make our own health decisions. It’s time for big daddy government to step in.

I celebrate the idea of a secretary of HHS promoting a healthy lifestyle. I’m all in. But do it via aggressive information campaigns and labeling, not bans. Especially not bans based upon sketchy pseudo science. (I’m looking out for you maligned seed oils)

You can’t be protected from everything. Sometimes humans intentionally make bad choices. We drink. We smoke. We eat too many calories and don’t exercise. We don’t wear our seatbelts. There isn’t a single person in this country who thinks any of those things are good for us, yet we do ’em anyway. So the question is how much should the government protect us from ourselves?

In a perfect world we’d go back to foods that have been completely stripped of any type of preservative, additive, coloring, and flavoring. No hormones, antibiotics, or pesticides. 100% natural everything. Cook the way our grandparents did. Combined with limiting portion sizes and exercise, we’d be a healthier nation for sure. But here’s the dirty little secret – you can already do that today. You control the products you choose to buy. You decide how much processed food you consume. If you can afford it you can source all your food from local farms and shop at Whole Foods exclusively. Cook everything from scratch. It’s entirely in your control to drink only natural spring water from recycled glass bottles. If you think HFCS sweetened beverages are unhealthy… then don’t drink them.

I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure if you’re consuming enough Fruit Loops to reach toxic levels of yellow dye number 5 you have other diet and health problems. Government bans aren’t going to save you. Arm people with information and knowledge, encourage healthy behavior, reward the health care system for promoting preventative strategies… then get out of the way.

People will make bad choices. Darwin always finds a way to thin the herd. I’m ok with that. But if Secretary Kennedy steps in and messes up the taste and color of my Cheez-It crackers, I’m going to be pissed.

Daily Life, Diet, Health, Motivation

How Old Are You?

I’m a sucker for a good quote. While on a hike yesterday I was listening to a podcast and heard this:

”The greatest predictor of age is how old you think you are”

Time to rewind a bit. It’s been an… odd summer. To be honest, probably longer than that. Weight has been slowly piling on. Motivation has dwindled. Life events, real and imagined, got in the way. There were a couple of unexpected surgeries (my first!). One of which left me with foot pain that has been pretty significant. For a while I was sure that I would not be able to ever mountain bike or ski again. The result was me sitting in a chair for most of the summer, feeling sorry for myself. And eating. And more eating.

If you had asked me in August how old I felt, I would have given you a number ten years older than my actual age. Fat. None of my clothes fit. Everything hurt. Tired all the time. Zero interest in doing anything to actually improve my situation. I played zero golf all summer. Did not ride my mountain bike or the motorcycle. A few walks in the interest of rehabbing the foot was the sum total of my activity. In short, I was in the express lane to becoming an old man.

It’s interesting, that quote above is not a new idea. I keep a running list of quotes, sayings, and thoughts that I think might be something interesting to write about. I went through my list a few days ago and found this one I wrote down a year ago:

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”

That quote is from the 1920’s. This concept of your perceived age is not new. Why that first quote resonated with me is that several years ago if you’d asked me how old I felt I would have given a number ten years younger than my age. A twenty year swing in perceived age. That hits hard.

The good news is that a little bit ago I started the process of reclaiming my health. That process sucks. It hurts. It’s demotivating because you see no progress. You’re basically just hungry and sore all the time. And then all of a sudden, the number on the scale starts trending down. Cardio starts improving. I found a way to ride my bike without pain. Energy improves. I’m able to do long backcountry hikes again.

And the best part… when I heard that quote while listening to that podcast, I can honestly say I now feel my actual age rather than older. I have an impedance scale that calculates your metabolic age based on a bunch of factors. This morning it reported my metabolic age matched my actual age for the first time in a while.

The takeaway is that the pithy quote is true. You really are as old as you feel you are. The important part is that it’s up to you. Your age feeling can go both ways. Would you rather feel older or younger? Making a noticeable change takes less time than you think it will. You just have to start. Granted, the motivation to get started is easier said than done. If I had the secret sauce to making that happen, I’d be a very rich social media influencer.

I think it’s worth honestly asking yourself – how old do you feel? If you’re not happy with your answer, make a change.

My goal these days is no longer a weight target or to achieve some physical sport or endurance goal. It’s to get back to feeling ten years younger than my actual age. Because if I feel younger, I’ll act younger and do things like a younger man. The rest will take care of itself.

Daily Life, Health

I’d Like To Buy Some Discipline Please

I went mountain biking with my crazy fit neighbor yesterday. Crazy fit meaning – he went for a trail run and then did leg day at the gym before we went for our ride. Halfway through the ride we joined up with another guy who turned out to be a pretty good rider. I was left in the back desperately gasping for air while they laughed and carried on a normal conversation. Granted they’re twenty years younger than me, but still… I hated that feeling. Being the slow guy who’s holding everyone up.

It’s a very painful feeling because once upon a time, I was the guy in front. I was the guy first up a climb. I was the guy offering encouraging words to other riders. I was the guy bombing down the hill at ludicrous speeds. I was the guy who was a “cyclist”. Now I’m the guy apologizing to other riders and telling them not to wait for me. It hurts.

How I got here is not a mystery. A love of tacos, nachos, and adult beverages. I stopped moving. I like napping more than the gym. I also know how to fix it. The problem is that I just… don’t. And I don’t know why.

Well, that’s not true. I do know why. It’s discipline. Specifically, a lack of.

My crazy fit neighbor and I had a conversation about this while riding. He’s recently semi-retired and has an amazing amount of structure to his day. Up at the same time each morning. Trail run at 06:30. Breakfast with the family at 10. Gym workout at 11:30. Mandatory two hour outside adventure with the kids each day. Bike ride or hike for an hour or so late afternoon. Dinner, then family/kid time. Early to bed. Every day, without fail. He’s dropped twenty pounds over the winter and is the fittest he’s ever been. He says the discipline has become addictive and has made him super productive with everything in his life.

My goal is to get out of my sweatpants by 10.

I don’t know why I can’t seem to find the mojo these days. But I will say, riding with those guys yesterday helped. On my own I would have done a shorter, easier route. Being with others and peer pressure helps with motivation. When they asked where I wanted to go and I picked the longer, harder trail. Although I nearly burst my spleen from exertion while climbing, I did not have to stop or walk up the hill. When I got to the top and they gave me fist bumps for my effort, I resolved right there that I never want this feeling again.

I’m going to do what it takes to no longer be the slowest guy in the group. Like putting a picture of yourself in a bathing suit on the fridge to remind yourself not to snack… I got to see just how slow and out of shape I really am. This will not be tolerated any longer. I don’t know if 0630 trail runs are going to happen, but the drift and time wasting stops today.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go ride my bike.

Daily Life, Health

How Old Are You?

Age is one of those things you can’t escape. Like the slow drift of the continental plates, it’s going to happen whether you want it to or not. It was one of the things that fascinated me as an RN. To see a consistent population of people, usually in their 60’s-70’s, who manifested their apparent age wildly different. A 70 year old who still rides bikes would be in the room next to a 60 year old who looked 90. Why such a difference? Why do people age at such different rates? I got to thinking about this because I’m currently reading a book on evolutionary anthropology (don’t ask) and was very intrigued when I ran across this quote:

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?”

Leroy Satchel Paige

Unless you were born into the Hadza tribe in Africa or maybe grew up in some weird religious cult that didn’t celebrate birthdays – you know how old you are. But what if you didn’t? What if all you could go on was how you “felt”. I don’t think I look like my actual age. Sure, I’m starting to sport a little bit of gray here and there but not much. I have friends who are younger than me who are almost entirely gray. I probably don’t dress appropriately for my actual age. Plenty of shorts and flip flops. I had to break down and go buy a sport coat a few months ago for an event because I didn’t have one. Without knowing what people really think, I’d guess that on appearance alone I look maybe five years younger than I really am (maybe that’s wishful thinking).

How I feel is much different. The impedance scale I use calculates out my metabolic age based upon weight, body fat, BMI, etc… It thinks I’m four years older than I really am. Probably correct given my current conditioning. I’ve also reached an age where I have a never ending series of aches and pains. A rotating litany of things that hurt. An old shoulder injury. Legs and knees that ache from five straight days of skiing and mountain biking. A weird foot pain that won’t go away. My body certainly knows it’s not twenty any more.

Mental age… that’s hard to say. Somewhere in my late thirties maybe (again, maybe wishful thinking). I still think I can do all the physical things I used to. Perhaps most important, I still want to do all those things. I’m not quite ready to give it all up, head to back porch and just watch sunsets. Slightly contradictory, I’m also starting to feel a maturity of thought that I don’t think I had before. It’s hard to explain. While I’m not very good at expressing it, my brain seems to explore thoughts on multiple different levels unlike what it did when I was ten or more years younger (that could also be the nightly bourbon making me feel wise). I’m not as quick to jump on whatever the conventional wisdom of the day is, like when I was younger. If someone makes a claim about something, I’m much more inclined to wait and see before believing it. At the same time, I find myself having a much stronger sense of right and wrong in the things I do believe. I suspect with age comes a decreasing need to care what others think.

I don’t know. It’s an interesting thought experiment. I hope I’m one of those guys who’s still riding bikes when I’m 75. Not just for the physical component, but to still have the desire to be out there enjoying life at that age. I hope I’m still able to make a cognizant argument about some world event when I’m an old geezer and not just be a grumpy old “get off my lawn” guy.

I wonder what makes people age. Is it diet? Exercise? Mental stimulation? Are some people just born with a zest and curiosity for life that others aren’t, or is it something that you cultivate on your own? Excluding disease, is there there something I can do to hold off aging or is it just luck of the cards I was dealt?

How about you – how old do you feel if you didn’t know when you were born?

Daily Life, Diet, Health

It’s A Problem Of Volume

The numbers are just depressing. But because of those pesky laws of thermodynamics, you can’t escape them. You can’t cheat them. The numbers don’t lie. One pound is 3,500 calories. To lose one pound a week you need to create a 500 calorie deficit every day. That’s it. No more or less complicated than that. Create the deficit and you lose weight. Go over and you gain. Simple, right?

The depressing part is that we’ve lost all sense of volume. While the internet has convinced you that seed oils are the devils work, the real problem is that you and I have no real concept of how many calories we consume. Our serving sizes have become ginormous. When you see what an actual serving size is, it no longer looks like it’s enough food. I’d still be hungry if that’s all I ate!

I start every morning with the full intention of tracking exactly my caloric intake. For example, this morning I resolved to eat a much smaller breakfast than normal. I made three scrambled eggs with a little bit of cheese and some avocado. Healthy, right? When you measure out the actual amount of cheese I used and factor in the butter I put in the pan, my breakfast was 800 calories. That’s approaching almost half of my daily calorie budget to hit my calorie deficit. Like I said, depressing. Because of that breakfast volume, I can now only have a small piece of steak and some broccoli for dinner. That will give me just enough calories to include a protein shake mid-day. That sucks.

Oh sure you can buy yourself some extra calories with exercise, but not enough to make up for the volume we normally eat. A three mile walk or a strength training session in the gym burns maybe a couple hundred calories. It gets you a little room in the calorie budget, but not much.

I live in a state of perpetual food guilt. I have a constant mental running total of roughly how many calories I think I’ve eaten. I bargain with myself all day long. I’ll eat this protein bar or half cup of skinny pop popcorn now, and then I’ll eat only half the steak tonight. I’ll have a beer with dinner, and I’ll just skip breakfast tomorrow to make up for it. It’s gotten to the point that I dread the idea of going out to dinner with friends. A restaurant menu is now just a list of things I can’t eat. It’s mentally exhausting and leads to never ending cravings. I don’t know what the answer is.

That’s not true – I know what the answer is, I just can’t seem to get there. For me, it’s an issue of activity. Being busy. When I was at my thinest I worked three 12 hour shifts in a row. I chose to eat only one meal a day on workdays. It worked because as a nurse I was so busy during my shift there was no time to think about food. I left the house at 06:30 am and got home at 8:00 pm and sprinted all day. It was easy to ignore hunger. I ate a massive meal when I got home, but it was still probably only 1200 calories at most. That gave me my weekly deficit. On my off days I was crazy active and busy. Trail running and mountain biking every day. I was too busy to think about food.

Now I’m home all day and for various reasons I have not been as active. Oh sure I do an activity almost every day – skiing, a workout, or a hike with the dog. But not with the intensity I used to. And I’m left with a lot of time to think about the pantry and fridge. Wondering what I can cut out tonight so I can have a bowl of popcorn now.

So it’s clear that I have some problems to solve. The first is to get a handle on exactly how many calories I’m consuming. It’s time for at least a few weeks of weighing and measuring everything. I need to understand portion size and stop eyeballing volume. I should probably meal prep, but that just sucks. I might need to resort to a pre-made, calorie controlled meal service. Anything to keep the volume in check.

Second, and probably most important, I need to find a way to get busy again. Out of the house and away from the fridge. A day full of activities so I’m not thinking about being hungry. Truly a first world problem.

It’s crazy how powerful the food addiction is. Any addiction, I suppose. The moment you decide to tackle the problem, your brain goes into overdrive and decides to remind you all day long of the very thing you’re trying to quit. Breaking that cycle of thinking about and craving something is one of the hardest things to do mentally.

So, we’re ready to start a new week. As the old saying goes, “If it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed”. Weighing and measuring everything.

Meanwhile, I’m off to a family Sunday brunch and trying to ignore all the food. Sigh. How did we get to this point?

Daily Life, Health, Motivation

Anticipation

It was quiet. Birds chirping. A light breeze blowing through the tops of the trees. The occasional whoomph as a clump of snow fell somewhere off in the distance. Most importantly, it was warm. I had to stop several times and simply stand with my face turned towards the sun, soaking in the rays. It was glorious. I was out skate skiing with my dog and had been looking forward to this for several days. That epic blue sky ski outing was the perfect antidote to a long gray winter.

The spring like weather continued over the weekend, and we took full advantage. Gardening, spring cleaning, taking the storm windows off. Yesterday I napped in the sun for an hour and sat in the backyard reading a book late into the afternoon. As I lay in the sun, my mind continuously went over things I could do this week with this window of perfect weather. I’ll get the motorcycle out. The trails are probably dry enough to go for a mountain bike ride. I can hike the dog without the trails being a muddy, sloppy mess. I might dust off the drone and go flying. So many possibilities.

As I lay there sunning skin that is pasty white from a long winter of coats and pants and flannel, I had a bit of an epiphany. It wasn’t just the sun that was putting me in a good mood. It was anticipation of all the things I wanted to do. I was starting to plan and look forward to the future again.

People always say that as you transition into retirement it’s important to stay busy. To maintain a schedule. They say that to be happy you need to have a purpose. I think that’s only partially true. What we really need is anticipation.

With that warm weather ski, I decided to drag out my camera gear and make a little video of the hound running around with me. Editing that video got me thinking about what I wanted to film this summer. That turned into several hours of organizing camera gear and ordering some parts for the drone. I watched some videos of tips for filming different camera angles and it really got me excited to try them out soon. The anticipation – the feeling of looking forward to something gave me that little dopamine hit that put me in a good mood.

Similarly, I was chatting with a buddy that I ride motorcycles with. He said that he really wanted to do more motorcycle camping this summer. That led to hours of researching which campgrounds will be snow free the soonest. It gave me a good feeling to think about the trips we might take, planning routes, and getting gear ready. Anticipation.

We have a trip to Mexico coming up. Another trip to see some family we don’t see often enough. Friends are driving across country in their motorhome to see us this summer, ride motorcycles and explore the area. I’m looking forward to all these things. I want more of that feeling of “looking forward to”.

If you think about it, anticipation is everything. The restaurant you’ve been wanting to try that you made reservations for. A concert you’ve been wanting to see. A tee time at a new golf course. Meeting friends for lunch that you haven’t seen in a while. It doesn’t matter what it is, the key is having that sense of pleasant anticipation.

That’s what keeps us moving forward.

Lose that and it’s over. If you’ve got nothing to look forward to, then what’s the point?

This winter was harsh. Bad snow, limited ski days, gray, storms, and cold. With, what felt like limited options to do anything, I found myself I found myself more and more frequently retreating to my comfy chair to read and nap. More napping than reading realistically. The more napping I did, the less inclined I was to go plan something to do. Sloth begets sloth, as the saying goes. I now realize that the prescription for next year is pre-planning things. A sprinkling of quick trips to explore cities we haven’t been to. Scheduling ski lessons to improve skills and keep me motivated. It doesn’t matter what it is. What’s important is to have a steady diet of anticipation for something.

I think this is why spring feels like such a joyous time. After a long winter, warm sun brings out the feeling of possibility. You can bust out the shorts and bathing suits. Think about swimming in the lake, riding your bike, or heading out on that summer vacation. It’s the anticipation that makes us feel good.

I’m going to spend the next few weeks planning activities. I think I’ll overcompensate this summer and try to have non-stop activities. I want to be in never ending planning mode. Upcoming motorcycle trips, camping trips, road trips, day outings, and activities. I want so much god damn anticipation I’ll be begging for some down time.

The dopamine rush from a warm day and looking forward to possibilities is addicting. I want more of that feeling. I don’t want to go back to the monotone feeling of sitting in the comfy chair and napping.

Now excuse me, I’m going to go get my dog a hike. He’s been looking forward all day for his run and chasing birds.

Anticipation.

Daily Life, Health, Travel

A Change In Priorities

We had a death in the family this week. Two, actually. Both had massive strokes on the same day and both passed away on the same day. A very odd coincidence. Anyway, I was talking to the widow of one of them and, in an attempt to offer comfort, had mentioned that now is the time to relish the memories they had made together. He brightened up and went into a long list of all the cruises, trips, excursions, and sailing outings they’d done. They’d actually done a lot more than I’d realized. It was obvious how fondly he remembered all those things they’d done together. Ultimately, our life is defined by the experiences we had.

I just finished a book that drove this concept home. It’s called Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. In it, the author has some very unique ideas about money, resources, and what’s important in life. To quote the old saying, “nobody dies wishing they’d spent more time at the office“. He encourages you to use your money to maximize the experience points you accumulate throughout life. He gives an example of when he was just out of school, dirt poor and eating ramen for dinner every night.

His roommate quit his job and borrowed money so he could backpack through Europe for a few months. The author thought he was nuts for being so irresponsible. The roommate came back with fantastic stories of meeting girls, beautiful beaches, and pictures of gorgeous scenery. The roommate found a new job shortly after returning and had paid back the borrowed money before long. Years later the author had built up some savings and thought about the trip the old roommate had taken. He realized that at age 30, he’d never be able to experience or recreate a carefree trip like that. That was an experience reserved for youth, and he’d missed it because he was being responsible with his money. Meanwhile the roommate had an experience he’ll remember forever and suffered no long term financial impacts because of it.

As the name of the book implies, the point is to die with zero. If you’ve got money and savings still in the bank when you’re gone, you left experiences on the table that you could have had. As you lay on your deathbed, wouldn’t you rather have had one last cruise or a trip somewhere with your loved one than a few extra dollars in the bank?

While much of the book is geared towards younger people and helping them think about how to manage their resources long term, there were a few chapters that really hit home for me. He uses the concept of “time buckets” to help prioritize experiences. The things you do in your twenties and thirties can be wild and more risky. You have time to recover, both physically and monetarily. As you move into your forties and fifties you can still have “active” experiences – ski trips, climbing the thousands of stairs in tiny towns in Italy, hiking national parks, etc…

But reality is that by the time you hit your sixties and seventies, the experiences you can have – change. While we all hope we’re still physically fit, for most of us a week long ski trip to Taos is not realistic at 65. Driving and long plane flights are harder. Our experiences tend to be more sedate – cruises, museums, and sitting on the beach enjoying sunsets. If you make it to eighty… well, very few of us are still active. Median life expectancy in the US is 77. Experiences become pretty limited at that point. Most of what you have at that age are memories of the past.

Having someone pass away, combined with the concepts in the book, hit me hard. Based upon average life expectancy, I have twenty years left. That’s only 1,000 weeks. If I did an “experience” every four weeks, that means I’ll have 250 more experiences in my life. That’s sobering. And out of those remaining twenty years, how many do I have left where I can still be relatively active? I hope a lot, but there’s no guarantee.

Why don’t we come to that realization when we’re younger?

So no more farting around and waiting until next month, six months from now, or next year to have those experiences. The clock is ticking and I want those life experiences in the bank. I don’t want to be on my deathbed, with money still in the bank, wishing I’d taken that trip when I was still fit enough to do it.

You only have this life once and you don’t get to take your things with you. You die with nothing more than the memories of what you’ve done and the people around you.

Let’s go make the most out of those remaining weeks.

Daily Life, Health

Death To Coffee

I was asked last night by someone who does not drink coffee – what does coffee do for you in the morning? Despite the urge to say, “uhm everything”, it did make me think. But first, some context. Starting about a month ago I began to make some changes. No, we won’t call them changes but experiments. One of them was to start drinking non-caffeinated tea at night before bed. I’m trying to avoid reaching for a snack, desert, or nightcap in the evening. Turns out a hot cup of tea fills the belly and keeps me from foraging in the kitchen.

Next, I started reading about Dr Huberman’s morning routine. Of the things he suggests doing, one of them was to delay caffeine intake for 90-120 minutes upon waking to let the residual adenosine clear from your system. At that point his caffeine choice is a strong tea.

It got me thinking. I’ve lost the taste for coffee lately. It’s very acidic and not helped by the fact that I make crappy Keurig coffee because I’m too lazy to do the pour-over or French press thing. Although I’ve never in my life been a tea drinker, I was already drinking it at night so why not try it in the morning?

So a few weeks ago I substituted some old caffeinated tea I found in the pantry for my morning coffee. Shockingly, I didn’t die or lapse into convulsions. I won’t say I was in love with the taste, but it was certainly more mellow on my stomach than the coffee.

So here we are. I’m keeping up with the tea instead of coffee thing. I ordered some fancy loose leaf tea and a proper tea strainer thingy.

Let me be clear about how momentous a change this is. Way back in the day when I was a software developer, I drank an absolute frightening amount of coffee. As in, multiple full pots a day. In later years as an RN, the only way to survive 12-13 hour shifts was large amounts of caffeine. Nowadays I’m back to a normal 2-3 cups a day, but the ingrained habit is strong. It’s a big thing that I’m not drinking coffee.

Is it going to be a continuing habit? That brings me back to the original question I was asked – what does coffee do for me in the morning? I honestly didn’t have an answer. In reality I’m probably not getting a decent nights sleep and therefore I’m super groggy in the morning. It feels like coffee/caffeine is the only way to “wake up”. A logical person would conclude that the right answer is to work on getting a better nights sleep, rather than caffeinate to compensate. I’ve never been accused of being the sharpest crayon in the box.

The routine I’d like to work towards is two-fold. First, work on getting a better nights sleep. Second, continue to incorporate Dr. Hubermans ideas. Wake up, sunlight, two large glasses of water with salt, and delay the caffeine for 90 minutes. For extra bonus points, use that 90 minutes to get my workout in.

At that point, take my time and make a proper cup of tea or a decent cup of coffee. Probably alternate. Maybe 70/30 tea/coffee.

Once I’ve reached that level of superhuman performance, I shall be in a perfect state of zen.

So that’s more than you wanted to know about one of my 2024 resolutions. We’ll cover the conquest and take over of some foreign country and running a 100 mile ultramarathon in another post. How about you? Are you a coffee or tea drinker? Pour-over or French press? Best high caffeine morning tea? Inquiring minds want to know.

Diet, Health, Motivation

I Used To Be…

We were hanging with friends the other day and one of them said she wanted to do a four-peak hiking challenge this coming year to get back in shape and improve health. She wanted to know if I’d be willing to do it with her so we could motivate each other. It only makes sense that she’d ask me because I am descended from Vikings. I am a Norseman! My ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and across the Old West. I come from hearty outdoorsman stock. I am practically Daniel Boone and Davey Crocket, reincarnate.

As a former trail runner who had no problem knocking out an 8-12 mile run in the mountains, I looked at the list of peaks and thought no big deal. Yeah, I’m not in shape at the moment but give me a few weeks and I’ll be back in form. After all, I’m a trail runner/mountain biker/backpacker/motorcyclist who’s comfortable in the mountains. Except that I’m not. I used to be… This year, more than any other, the reality of living in the past has hit me hard. I used to do all kinds of athletic things. I used to be in pretty good shape. I used to run and mountain bike and ski. The reality is that it’s been at least three years since that was true.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that this has not been my favorite year. Was it challenging because of my weight and fitness? Or did my weight and fitness being in the crapper make the year a struggle? Chicken and egg, I suppose.

It’s hard to admit Father Time has caught up with you. I haven’t bounced back from surgery like I thought I would. I went skiing a few days ago and my legs were destroyed in just a few runs. I’m super sore after workouts – I tell myself it’s because I had surgery, but deep down I know it’s because I haven’t been doing anything for a long time.

It’s clear I’ll never been Davey Crocket again. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a “real” mountain biker or trail runner again. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be massively better than I am now. I’m not sure my joints could take running at this point. But I bet I can be a damn good hiker again. It’s doubtful I’ll ever descend or ride the bike at race pace again, but I bet I can get back to being a good climber and endurance rider for my age.

As we get ready for the new year, I feel good about ’24. For some strange reason, the last time I lost a bunch of weight and got in shape, I decided to start during the holidays. Arguably the worst possible time to try and watch your diet and exercise. When I made it through the holidays and kept up with my diet goals, I felt proud of myself and energized to keep it going.

Oddly, I’ve done the same thing this year. I didn’t mean to, and had forgotten that this was the same timeframe I started the last go ’round. Something snapped in my head after Thanksgiving and I said to myself, we’re done with drinking calories and we’re going to pay attention to diet. I’ve managed to avoid the typical binges during holiday parties so far and feel good.

So we’re doing better with diet and we have a physical challenge with four peaks to work towards. I feel like 2024 is going to be the change I needed.

As I was talking to my friend about getting ready for hiking, I mentioned how important working on balance was. As I thought about my own advice, I decided I needed a balance goal to work towards. So I decided to learn a new skill for ’24 to challenge myself and work on balance.

It’s a move on the bike called a “manual”. If you’re a kid it’s probably no big deal. At my age, I think it would be a significant achievement. I see some tumbles in my future, but as long as I don’t break a hip it’ll be worth it.

So there we go. We’re going to move on from remembering what I used to be, and instead focus on what I can be. Damn, that’s poetic. Almost T-shirt worthy.

So Merry Christmas, Chanukah, Festivus, or whatever it is you celebrate. Let’s make 2024 a good one!