Involved or Committed??

There’s a popular quote from John F. Kennedy that says. “one man can make a difference – and that every man should try.“

Pretty epic wisdom if you ask me. If I suddenly start to care more about the environment my individual impact isn’t going to add up to much. But if my neighbor starts listening to me and then his neighbor listens to him by the time we get 10 houses down were starting a trend.

There are two problems with that quote. We only got a small portion of the entire statement and perhaps the biggest blunder, JFK probably didn’t say it or at least historians haven’t been able to find proof that he did. The more likely author of that quote is his wife Jacqueline Kennedy for a piece on his memorial Library in 1964.

Here’s the entire quote.

“John Kennedy believed so strongly that one’s aim should not just be the most comfortable life possible, but that we should all do something to right the wrongs we see, and not just complain about them. We owe that to our country, and our country will suffer if we don’t serve her. He believed that one man can make a difference – and that every man should try.“

I read that statement and by the end thought to myself. Holy crap where has this entire quote been hiding for more than half a century and why was the last sentence singled out as the most valuable?

None of that matters now, I’ve read it and now you have as well. WHAT ARE WE/I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??? You cant Ctrl, Alt Delete that from your memory bank. We/I need to live that mission every single day as the success of our planet relies on our collective work now more than ever.

Relentless dedication to something small…

There are about a half dozen ideas I have that kicking around in my head on how I can change the world or better yet things I like to complain about but haven’t taken enough time or effort to do something about. 

I’m ready to do something about that now as I realize that I am not fully living up to the words that Jacqueline graced us with. Sure I feel like I am an involved and conscientious member of this planet but being halfway committed to change isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Lets each pick one small thing we are passionate about and make a promise to each other that we will take action daily to educate ourselves, speak up about injustice and rather than complain about it we will work towards building a stronger global community.

Call to Action

Have you ever heard of the parable of inviting the Chicken and the Pig To breakfast? The chicken will bring eggs to breakfast, he is involved as he can come back again tomorrow. The pig on the other hand is committed, when he brings home the bacon he isn’t coming back tomorrow.

Go out there and be the change the world needs and get out there and stay committed. Change is hard and dirty work but lucky for us pigs like those sorts of things. 

I saw it on the internet…

I recently stumbled upon a quote that I thought was amazing, as I read it kept getting better and better and by the end, I thought to myself  “This is worthy of a blog post”

“‘I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless. The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say ‘I’m bored.’” ~ Louis CK

Boom. That’s what we millennials like to call a #truthbomb, That’s wisdom that you can build an entire life around. Scratch that, it’s so good you could build an amazing life and then put a couple more layers of awesomeness over top for good measure.

To say that 2020 is shaping up to be a raging five-alarm dumpster could be the understatement of the century. Going out and exploring the world right now is out of the question but we can certainly do some things to expand our mind.

The golden age of communication.

568 years ago Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press and the golden age of communication was born. The big problem was way back in the 1450s about 10% of the population of Germany and England could actually read what was on that paper. Fast forward to 1820 and only 12% of the entire world’s population could read, we are doing exponential better now as in 2016 the world wide literacy rate was 86%.

Access to the written word may be closing in on 600 years old but for the majority of the worlds population, the ability to understand it isn’t much older than your great, great grandparents.

The spoken word on the other hand is as old as time, we’ve been gathering around the fire, telling stories and teaching lessons in between bites of Woolly Mammoth and that was between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago (no need to fact check, I consulted google.) 

The Second Golden age of communication.

I remember going over to my friends house in early 2005 and him going on and on about how cool this new site he found called youtube was. I asked some questions and came to the conclusion that I wasn’t nearly as impressed and probably wouldn’t use it much, boy was I wrong about that. Youtube has changed the world and how we learn, sure there’s cat video’s and this seven-second master pieced that never stops being funny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ifVx9yZbY but there’s an infinite amount of valuable lessons to be learned for FREE!!!  How often do you say this ” I wonder how I could fix… I bet there’s a youtube video on it.” I’ve never had a time where something didn’t come up.

Call to Action

Video’s and tutorials

Are you a horrible cook, looking for quick and easy recipes that feature a bunch of vegetables??  Check out this link https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/ and get after it. Sure you might eat some mediocre versions of these dishes for a while but eventually like most things you will get better if you keep working at it. Your waistline and wallet will thank you as well.

Audiobooks

I love books but I don’t have the time or patience to read them. You can sign up for an audible account for $14.00 a month or check out your local library as they often will have free audiobooks that you can check out digitally.

Here’s a few suggestions for your summer listening.

Hemingway – The old man and the sea. Donald Sutherland narrates this version and its amazing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9BNaJ48j00 Hands down this is my favorite book of all time it’s short but packs in a ton of valuable life lessons.

Steinbeck – The winter of our discontent and America and Americans are both lesser-known works from this prodigious American author but they are my two personal favorites.

Podcasts

I’m pretty sure there’s a podcast out there for every single topic of interest that you could imagine. Of all of the tools that have helped transform me into who I am today this one has had the largest impact. Here’s the best part! Besides the price of an internet connection, these are completely free.

How many times have you listened to that same old song or wasted an hour listening to talk radio while in the car? Don’t think you have enough time to listen?  According to Harvard Health Watch, the average American spends 101 minutes in a car every day. Why not use some of that time to learn, remember there is no finish line in life.

It has never been this easy to gain access to information that can truly have an impact on your life. So get out there and start taking advantage of all of the wonderful things that exist on the internet.

Ogres, Onions and Fathers Day…

One of my favorite movie quotes of all times comes from the original Shrek movie, its funny but has some deep-seeded wisdom lurking under the surface. Shrek and Donkey are walking through a garden discussing why Shrek didn’t torment a village, Shrek’s response is Ogres are a lot like onions, they have layers.

Ogres and people are very different, at least that’s what I’ve been able to infer from the movies, I’ve never met one in real life before. But just like onions and ogres, we do have a lot of layers. I’d be willing to bet that I could put my self in at least 2 dozen categories of groups I belong to. Like a surfer, aspiring farmer, runner, cook, husband, and father. Of all of my layers, those last two are at the core of the onion for me. They are why I go to work, eat healthily, exercise, and try to be the best version of myself I can be. I hope that I am better at those now then I was a year ago and that future me is better then I am today.

I am very grateful to have both my parents in our lives as they are fantastic parents and even better grandparents. They are a literal encyclopedia Britannica of wisdom on everything from parenting to building an outdoor shower. I’m 37 and I still need my parents for that wisdom and perhaps most importantly to watch our kids a few days a week so we don’t completely lose our minds as a result of working from home with an almost 2-year-old.

The most important thing I will do with my life is to be the gentle guiding influence that will hopefully turn my kids into kind and successful members of society as they grow and mature throughout their lives.

The best way I’ve come up with so far on how to accomplish that goal is to lead through example and take care of myself mentally and physically so I can be around for along time.

I want to take the next few minutes to implore you on the importance of taking care of yourself so we can be great fathers for many more decades to come. 

  1. If you haven’t been to the doctor to get a physical because your young and invisible in the past 5 years you need to stop and make that happen. In the spirit of brutal honesty, I belonged to that camp until about a year ago.  I went, it didn’t hurt and I felt grateful walking out of there after getting my lab results knowing that nothing unforeseen hadn’t been lurking under the surface.
  2. Take an inventory of what you eat this week, maybe even write it down. If you see something that surprises you next Sunday, pick that one thing and try to eat half as much the following week and in half again the following week. I truly believe that quitting cold turkey is bad for long term success.
  3. Pick a couple of bodyweight exercises like push-ups, squats, lunges, dips, crunches, planks you get the picture. Now pick a reasonable number of reps and days a week you will commit to putting in the work and start TODAY!!!

I promise you that if you put these three things into practice this year that you will be running circles around your kids come, fathers, day 2021.

You are Here…


How many imaginary finish lines do you think we cross in our life? I bet its in the hundred of thousands, who knows though that number could be a gross exaggeration or a massive underestimate. Think about all the races across the school yard when you were a little kid. If having an almost 5 year old son has taught me one thing it is that everything can and probably should be a race with a finish line.

Sure the vast majority of finish lines are insignificant in our lives but what about the major ones like graduating from school, getting a job, getting married, buying a house or having kids. All of these are huge goals that can be way off in the horizon and take years and years of hard work and dedication to achieve. But what happens when we get there to the “finish Line” of that race in our life? From my experience a small amount of happiness floods in and then the reality that maybe all of that work leading up-to the finish line was just a precursor of what was really in store for us.

I’ve been kicking this idea around in my head for a while and it was really cemented while listening to one of my favorite podcasts the 3 of 7 project. https://3of7project.com/podcast/ Chadd the host and Ian Thomas recounted their adventure in an ultra race called bob big back yard. The race format is pretty simple, run 4.16667 miles within 60 minutes and if you do so you can run the next loop when it starts on the top of the hour. There is no set distance for the race it ends when only 1 person is left running. In the 2018 race the last person running logged just over 283 miles or 68 hours of running.

I don’t want to give to much away as I really think the podcast is amazing and you should totally listen to it. but with out a bit of a spoiler I cant finish this blog post so with that being said… Ian had a goal distance in mind that he wanted to achieve and with that out on the horizon although difficult at times it was a motivator to keep moving towards it. When that self imposed finish line came happiness arose but the desire to keep going waned and he threw in the towel. Chadd the ultimate motivator tells Ian ” Don’t die in the chair” we go out like warriors on the battle field. And before the next top of the hour the two are off running again for yet another loop.

Ian ran a really, really long way that day. But I wonder how far he could have ran if all the wind wasn’t let out of his sails when he crossed the “finish line” and then I thought about all the times I could have gone further but the finish line got in the way of what I was truly capable of.

THERE IS NO FINISH LINE

who says there has to be an end to any chapter in our lives. why does the learning have to stop when we graduate, why can’t the high school track star keep running and competing ? Why do we have to grow up and be adults all the time?

I know I’ve wasted time in my life thinking that I had arrived at my destination to only realize several years later that I was still standing in the same place wondering how all those people got so far in front of me. Maybe there finish line was further out in the distance or they learned before I had that there really wasn’t one. When you stand still at your destination thinking you’ve arrived you might as well be going backwards.

Call to Action.

I’m sure there’s something that you are curious to learn about right now and boy oh boy are you in luck. Access to information has never been this easy or cheap to access. I’m currently learning about organic gardening practices as well as creating a food forrests. I haven’t stepped into a classroom or paid tuition, I’ve learned a ton through the magic of youtube. Just be careful that the cute cat videos don’t suck you in to deep.

Stagger you goals. I have a goal for my trail running, its a pretty big one and its going to take a few more years to get there. In the mean time I’m going to come up with what the next step is so I’m not standing at the end of the race wondering whats next. When that happens it’s easy to take the foot off the gas and go into idle.

Go out and challenge yourself to something that you don’t think your capable of right now. Hitting the register button is often times the hardest part. Go out and train, prepare your self mentally and go out their and execute the mission. When you achieve that goal it will light a fire inside of you as you realize that there’s a lot more in the tank then you ever would have imagined.

This is really cliche but life is truly a journey and not a destination. It’s a long hard road filled with tons of work and hopefully a healthy smattering of happiness and contentment along the way. Whenever I feel like quiting I think of these words from Dr. Martin Luther King

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Cut the cord and unplug…

June 3rd was international running day, a day to lace up the sneakers and hit the road for a few miles of exercise. Running when you really think about it is much more then a sport its a basic human movement that we have been utilizing since the begging of our species. Sure a sweet pair of running shoes and the awesome jams that your phone is laying down are a huge help but isn’t ultimately necessary for you to get from point A to point B. But what are you missing out on when the world is being drowned out by yet another distraction.

I’m not sure how long I’ve been on the no head phones team but its been a long time and I would like to offer up a few reason why you may want to join us weirdos.

  1. situational awareness. I don’t know about you but I think headphones have two sound levels, off or maximum volume. And when your blasting your jams at 10 the chances of you hearing anything else going on in the world is almost nothing. Furthermore I know that I have ran right through a minor intersection and had a few close calls with cars when I was so engulfed in my song. I know what your thinking “but music makes my runs go by so much quicker because I’ve got something that distracts me from what I’m doing.” Think about that one for just a second.
  2. This ones stolen from David Goggins. What are you going to fall back on for motivation when the cell phone isn’t there or runs out of battery. It’s really easy to get psyched up when your jam is on, I wish that every time I was feeling a little drained coldplay’s sky full of starts would start blasting right at the point where the beat drops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPRjCeoBqrI ( 1:10 in is what I’m talking about) There’s definitely going to be times in life when the goings are going to be tough and popping in the ear buds is not going to be an option. Wouldn’t that run around the neighborhood be a great training ground for learning how to push through a challenge?
  3. And most importantly. How much time do you get in a day where you aren’t being lambasted with pictures, videos and advertising messages? I’m willing to be it isn’t much, the good news is my answer is probably very similar to yours. So the question becomes when do we have time to contemplate our existence, work through our day to day and global issues and just let our mind wander like a 4 year old? You may not be surprised by my answer but it’s when were out for a walk or run.

Running for me is way more then exercise it’s a cathartic time where I let my mind wander and ask and answer the questions that are front of mind. I think I’ve probably said this before but i’m almost certain 90% of what you’ve read on this blog has been hashed out while pounding the pavement. I am fully convinced that if I was listening to the punk rock station on Pandora we wouldn’t be doing this together on a weekly basis.

When we have that constant digital distraction in our lives its very easy to lose sight of the beauty in the everyday world. I cringe to think how many sunsets, neighborhood cats and toilets that have been repurposed as planters that I’ve missed in my life as I blindly ran towards an arbitrary finish line. https://www.instagram.com/p/CAv4zc7hmk8/

I really believe Ferris Bueller said it best “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Whats a portion

11 years ago my wife wanted to go see the movie Avatar in theaters. I wasn’t completely on board with this idea as going out to the movies is not on my top 10 list of favorite things. After a bit of negotiating we landed on an agreement. She would buy me one single beer at the world of beer before we saw the movie. My wife was speaking my language with this offer and pretty soon we were in the car headed to the theater.

On the drive I hatched a devious plan to make sure I got the best end of the deal and it went a little something like this.

Bartender – What will you have?

Me – Liter of Hofbrau please.

Bartender sets down beer.

Me – Thanks

Wife – Wow, that’s a lot more then one beer.

Me – It’s 1 beer because it came in 1 glass.

Wife – I hope you pee your pants in this 3 hour movie.

In theory I was totally correct in ordering that 33 ounce beer but in spirit I was way off base. And I did have to take a restroom break half way through the movie.

Thanks for sticking with me through that little story, I hadn’t thought about it in years and it made me laugh but I feel like it can teach us a good lesson.

What we eat and burn

The average American consumes more than 3,600 calories daily – a 24% increase from 1961, when the average was just 2,880 calories. I know right. That factoid is from a 2013 study released by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAOSTAT)

For a reference point the average american male burns between 1,900 and 2,500 calories a day, that number will vary with activity level. That leaves an excess of a 1,000+ calories a day. Which in theory sounds like a ton of extra food but in reality can easily be accomplished when your 1 beer has 440 calories.

Understanding portion size.

Our view of a portion size is completely out of wack with that we actually should be consuming. This is most evident in restaurants where studies have shown that we could be consuming up to 4 times the correct portion size based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Think about the giant bowl of pasta the last time you ate out at your favorite Italian joint. That’s probably what Nona Maria would have served to her entire family back in the old country.

Practical Advice.

Consult with a registered dietitian and see what you really need as your daily calorie intake. If you can’t do that a Basal Metabolic Rate – BMR calculator will give you a good idea of where you are supposed to be.

Buy a digital scale and read your nutritional labels. It’s a bit of a shocker in the beginning when you realize that you’ve been eating what is considered 2-3 portion sizes. https://www.amazon.com/digital-scale/s?k=digital+scale I agree it seems really silly to weigh out everything you eat but after a few weeks of retraining your self you wont have to rely on it nearly as much. ( we will dive deeper into this subject in a future blog, there’s some sneaky business going on with nutrition fact panels)

Fill your plate the correct way. A well designed plate will look like this. 50% vegetables, 25% whole grain carbohydrate and 25% protein. Vegetables are nutrient rich, relatively low in calories and are high fiber/high volume foods. When you get that digital scale try weighing out 300+- grams of vegetables its a lot more than you think it will be. P.S that’s a pretty good number to aim for at dinner and I almost guarantee you wont leave the table hungry after that portion of vegetable.

Like I’ve mentioned before in so many of my posts the key to long term success is to slowly but surely eliminate those junk food items from your daily diet. If you need some Doritos’s in your life right now i’m cool with it. But instead of taking the whole bag to the sofa for the ensuing T.V binge fest make friends with your new digital scale and weight out a correct portion and then get your chill on.

1. Stop drinking your calories

So I would like to open by saying I am not a dietitian or a doctor, I don’t have any letters after my name making me a subject mater expert in the field of nutrition either. what I can offer up for your consideration is some anecdotal evidence from my personal experiences as well as some cold hard science and perhaps plant a seed of change in your mind.

What if I told you that a year from now if you changed this one thing in your life you could lose a serious amount of weight and save a couple thousand dollars. Maybe you would think its crazy or another round of click bait marketing that isn’t even remotely based on anything factual.

Over the next few minutes I want to show you how drinking an excess amount of sugary drinks over the period of a year will hit you hard around the waist line and the wallet.

The science

Sugars are a type of carbohydrate and all forms contain 4 calories per gram.

Alcohol has 7 calories per gram.

1 pound of fat roughly contains 3,500 calories.

Beer and Alcohol

The average american spends roughly $435 dollars per year on alcoholic beverages, to be completely honest I was a little surprised at this number as I thought it was a little low. I’m sure in my hay day of $10.00 6 packs of craft beer I was spending way more then that on an annual basis.

Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in american and over the past decade we have averaged a consumption of 26.2 gallons per year.

The Math…

26.2 gallons equals out to 280 beers or twenty four 12- packs over the period of a year. based on an average cost of 10.50 a 12-pack that equals out to roughly $250 dollars. The average beer has 130 calories which leaves us with a total calorie count of 38,460 calories or 11 pounds of potential fat/stored energy.

Soda

We Americans spend several billion dollars a year supporting our sugar laden fizzy drink habit to the tune of 44.7 gallons per year according to a study released in 2010. The good news is that in the past decade soda sales have begun to decline but other sugary beverages have helped to fill those gaps.

On a daily basis we average 94 grams of added sugar a diet in our diet, that equals out to 358 calories. That’s close to a 1/6th of the daily calories based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet. One 12 oz can of Coca Cola and you have reached your daily allowance of 36 grams of added sugar.

The Math.

44.7 gallons of soda is equal to 487 twelve ounce cans of soda or 41 twelve packs. At 140 calories per can that equals out to an annual calorie consumption of 68,180 calories or 19.48 pounds of potential fat/stored energy. Based on a $5.00 price that would cost you about $200 a year.

To make things even worse we spend 1 trillion dollars a year here in the United states treating diseases closely associated with excess sugar intake. Diseases like, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and non alcohol fatty liver disease all have been linked with consuming an over abundance of sugar. Divide that 1 trillion dollars out by the 328 million Americans and you have an annual cost of $3,136 dollars per person.

Coffee

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the coffee its self its what we add to it that is the problem. I drink coffee every day and sometimes twice depending on how the kids slept the prior night and how things are going at our home office/day care center during this pandemic.

These numbers are a little shocking to me when I did the research for this blog. On average millennial’s ages 25-34 spend a whooping $2,008 a year on coffee, that equals out to $5.50 a day. HOLY CRAP!!! That’s a ton of money over the period of a year. So much in fact that the 1/3 of millennial’s spends more on coffee in the period of a year then they do on investments towards retirement. Now we know why Starbucks can afford to have a location on almost every street corner.

The Math. So we already know the financials on this habit but lets consider the calories. This is one is a bit tougher to do as a cup of black coffee has very few calories. in fact if you drank a very expensive cup of black coffee everyday you would easily come in under 500 calories for the entire you. However if you are spending $5.50 a day on coffee your more then likely moving towards the problem. Checking out the Starbucks menu online helped me narrow it down to 300 calories per drink on average.

so 300 calories times 365 days a year is equal to 109,500 annual calories or 31lbs worth of potential fat/energy.

THE REALITY

I’m not asking you to give up all three of these drinks cold turkey or suggest that if you did you would lose an upwards of 60 lbs over the next year. Both of those are completely unrealistic as a habit as hard as sugar is hard to break and the calories consumed in these drinks do help fuel our daily activity. Losing weight is not an exact science and none of us are exactly the same.

My goal with this exercise is to show that little uneventful decisions made on a daily basis can add up to some serious caloric intake and cost us a lot of money over the period of a year.

Over the period of a year all those drinks cost us $2,460 and account for 216,400 calories. Even if we fail miserably on our goal and only hit 25% reduction that’s still $600.00 and 50,000 fewer calories. That will make a huge difference in your health over a year.

CALL TO ACTION

Beer has always been my number one vice in life, I love it way more then I should. When I was younger and very active the increased calories didn’t seem to catch up with me. When I hit my late 20’s and the activity level dropped that’s when I started really putting on the weight. I had tried to limit/quit many times in the past but it was only when I took measured approach that I was able to eventually cut it out of my life.

Here’s what I did, maybe this will work for you. My goal was to only drink two beers a week one on Friday and one on Saturday. If I went to the store and bought a 12 pack thinking it would last 6 weeks in the fridge I would inevitably fail on this goal mid way through the week. So I stopped buying beer by the case and would ride my bike to gas station and purchase a single beer on the weekend. This way I had to take physical action to leave the house and go get that beer, and that’s not always easy when you have two kids.

After a couple of months of this pattern I noticed the spare tire starting to shrink and that motivated me to find other things I could do get even better results.

THE MORAL…

Start today but start small, You aren’t going to give up beer,soda or sugary coffee drinks tomorrow. If your drinking a 12 pack of soda a week lets start by trying to only drink 8 next week and then 4 the week after that. Make it a little more difficult to fall back on that vice in a moment of weakness. Put the money that you would have spent on those sugary drinks in a jar/separate bank account and watch it grow. Set a goal for something you need like a new surfboard, retirement or a vacation. Chances are by the time you’ve saved the money you’ve broken the habit and can move onto the next small step to better health and financial freedom.

Hows your beach, body?

Have you ever contemplated that grain of sand clung to your foot while your chilling on the beach? For instance how it got there, how long did it take or how many of his little friends does it take to make something as gigantic as that beach your lying on? You Haven’t, that’s okay I have a tendency to think about weird things and then wonder that the answers are.

So here’s the cliff notes on the answers. erosion, currents and tides, fish poop, millions of years and one hundred trillion other grains of sand is what it takes to make that beach your lying on. In other words a lot of small things happened every single day and eventually it ended up making the awesome beach you are dreaming about right now.

A few weeks back those questions crossed my mind as I was looking back towards the beach brushing a few grains of sand off my feet before putting my shoes back on. and it got me to thinking that…

Our health is a lot like a beach.

Both are made from tiny things that over an extended period of time will accumulate to make something much bigger then themselves. Just like the ever changing beach our health from a day to day view is changing so insignificantly that we never notice something until it becomes so big that it’s obvious. The slow progress is a detriment on both sides of the equation. If you went on a crash diet and started exercising 2 times a day you will not see a dramatic change for months. Or on the flip side you wont pick up 20 lbs over night because of that extra trip down the buffet.

Design your own beach.

You may remember that 25% of our health/life expectancy can be attributed to our genetic build up leaving our daily choices to make up the lion’s share of our health. What I’m trying to say is that the decision you make today for lunch today is simultaneously the most important and least significant choice you will ever make. I’m sure you have heard the statement ” one kale salad wont make you skinny, just like one cheeseburger wont make you fat” and I totally agree with that statement. The problem/solution is that what we tend to do once often translates into what we do very often.

21 choices a week

lets do some math for a minute. lets say you started being fully conscious of the decisions you were making about your diet and nutrition at the age of 18. You eat 3 meals a day 7 days a week equaling 21 meals. You do that 52 weeks a year for 1,092 meal a year. And you live for 60 more years (78 is the average american life expectancy) that would give you a grand total of 65,520 opportunities to make an impact on your overall health and well being.

There is no way anyone on this planet can make 65,500 or so perfect decision on what they put into their bodies. If you start with the next meal and win there you may be able to put a streak together, when you win the battle at dinner and so on and so forth until that double fudge chocolate brownie yells your name loud enough. The fact of the matter is there is going to be bumps along the way that’s okay life is hard and cookies are delicious. Whats more important for our long term health is how quickly you forget about the one “poor decision” and get back on the path.

Little by little becomes a lot.

Over the past 4 years or so I was able to share this idea of small but consistent change with my family and as of today my Wife, Mom, Dad, Sister and I have lost a combined 130 lbs. We did it by starting small and working our way up to more healthy choices in our 21 meals a week. We started an exercise regime that wasn’t much in the beginning but grew into something that met our needs and kept us injury free. And perhaps most importantly allowed us the chance to have a piece of birthday cake and not feel horrible about it.

I’ve compiled a list of the 10 small changes we’ve made that have given all of us a better quality of life and over the next two weeks I am going to share them with you 1 by 1. I’m not a doctor or a dietitian and what I’m going to share with you is far from ground breaking but I truly believe that what has worked for us could make a difference in your life as well.

P.S

If you stay the course you will have that beach body you’ve always wanted, its just not going to be this summer if you are doing it for the long haul. Also a tight stomach and buff arms is nice but you know whats really sexy? Low cholesterol, low blood pressure and the way your doctor will praise you during your next physical.

What’s your why???

I want to open by saying I’ve written this blog post about 8 times already and I’ve thought it was good and then I would read it and think I hadn’t hit really hit the mark. I feel like this version might be the one that see’s the light of day.

Four years ago on a Monday I took the trash out and had a conversation with a neighbor that made me think about the choices I was making in life. It started me on my path to where I am today. Those early days had some bumps, detours and full on sabbaticals as my “why” was motivating but was a bit superficial and self serving. I don’t want to discount this why to much as it still drives me today but about a year into being a Dad the “Why” Epiphany hit me really hard again. It came in the form of 5 simple words formed into a question by Travis Manion –http://www.travismanion.org

“If not me then who?“

Those words got me thinking more about the way I was living and what would happen 20 to 30 years down the road if I stayed on the current path I was traveling. Who would take care of my my wife and children if I let my health go by the wayside and I passed away relatively young? Who’s going to go surfing my with my son and daughter when they are teenagers? Who will teach my children how to cook, look someone in the eye and grow up to be fine contributing members of society?

I knew the answer to those questions and it was me! And that’s when I found my “why” that has kept me going every day since I asked myself those questions.

After several thousands of hours of podcasts, audible and long runs I have reached something that I think is of value to this world.

“One of the best ways to to take care of the people who rely on you is to first take care of yourself.” Its a little wordy but I think the message is solid.

To elaborate I’m not telling you to become a self serving jerk who ignores their family in the search for a banging six pack at the gym. I’m asking you to squeeze in 15 minutes a day of exercise, eat more vegetables and less processed food and perhaps more importantly go see your doctor for an annual check up.

What’s your why

My why and your why to take control of our health may be completely different and that’s to be expected. My why isn’t better then yours, just like yours isn’t better then mine. what is important is that we find the thing or things that will keep us on the path to who we want to be when we grow up.

Which leads me to my question for you today. Who/what do you want to be doing 10,15, 20 and so on years down the road? I would be willing to bet those ideas are filled with hobbies, good health and time spent with the ones you love. Now ask yourself this question are the choices I am making today moving me closer or further away from that dream.

I hope that you answered that question with a resounding yes but if you didn’t that’s quite alright. It wasn’t that long ago that my answer was the opposite of what it is today. And if you remember back to the WHEN blog post from this series, the second best time to do something is right now.

There are so very few things that we have any control over in life and I feel like that’s more evident know then ever in the time of covid. The choices that you make today, tomorrow and the next day will have a collective impact on your life down the road. Having a why that is bigger then your self will serve you far better then trying to rely on fleeting hopes of motivation.

If your curious about who I want to be when I grow up send me a message and I will elaborate. https://www.instagram.com/brian_in_search/

Whats the Point???

Covid is running rampant, cupcakes are delicious, beer is cold and in the end when your only promised death and taxes does it really matter if you eat that third slice of pizza. In the grand scheme of things one days worth of decisions doesn’t really add up to much or does it?

We as human beings are the sum collective of all of our life experiences and what we do today, tomorrow and the next day will have a profound impact on who we become a couple of years down the road.

Sure our genetics have some impact on our overall health but its a lot less than most people think. According to the National Institute of Health – https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/longevity Our genetic make up accounts for 25% of our overall health. Leaving us in charge of the other 75% of how our life plays out. I’m not sure about you but I really like those odds.

With that being said If there is another constant in life we can count on its this, LIFE ISN’T FAIR. Not even a little bit most of the time. I had a coworker that ate healthy, exercised like crazy and fought and ultimately lost his 8 year battle with cancer a year and a half ago. It sucked really bad to lose him but there is no doubt in my mind that the way he lived and ate had a profound effect on his quality of life and why he fought as long as he did.

So whats the point when healthy people die suddenly of heart attacks and people who eat McDonalds and smoke a pack of cigarettes a day live to 100? LIFE ISN’T FAIR, some times you get pocket aces and the professional poker player gets double 2’s and he walks away with all of your cash.

I’m not a doctor or a dietitian so all of my advice is anecdotal and I surely hope that you don’t walk into your kitchen after reading this and throw out all your junk food, that isn’t the best way to make a long term change.

What I am advocating for is a slow and steady change to our diets and exercise routine. My mom has a few things that I’ve heard her say a couple of hundred times in my life and one of the best goes like this. “How do you eat an elephant, Brian? One bite at a time! (Thanks mom, I’ve been listening all these years. Love you) When your 8 and trying to write a book report its a little annoying but now its become one of my favorite mantras.

Falling back to the Exercise is where you find it post – https://subjects2change.food.blog/2020/04/13/exercise-is-where-you-find-it/ You will remember that we need to go from 0-10 before we start thinking about whats happening around level 90-100. There we go again how do we get back in shape, one bite at a time.

Call To Action

All things considered the decisions we make today, tomorrow and the next day add up and we can take “control” of our health. You wont see or feel the changes today, tomorrow or the next day but if you remember what my mom always says you will see and more importantly your doctor will notice at your next physical.

We are living to an average age of 78.7 years in America and that number has decreased over the past two years for men. The sadder fact is that we are also losing independent quality of life on top of that, this means we are living shorter and less healthy lives.

I’ve always thought the point of life was to live a long and healthy life so that you can continue to have an impact on the people who need you the most, and that seems like a pretty good point to me.