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Hah, I logged in to see I haven’t compiled long-form writing in about a year and a half. Well, it’s been quite the interesting 18 months. Mostly chronicled in the Notes app in my phone + a physical journal I’ve been keeping. Looking back at my previous posts, I sense some fairly frustrated sentiments from my own past words. #YOLO! That’s been the theme of 2018…and while it sounds understandably simplistic and bro-ey, perhaps I’ll elaborate on my #YOLO philsophy at a later date… I will be writing with more of a  ‘stream of consciousness’ type of prose going forward, covering things that I want to elaborate on regardless of anyone’s general interest in my own topics. Stay tuned fam

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

The day-to-day reality for most people throughout the US has been pretty intense as of late.  No one really seems to be sure what’s going on with the Federal government, or in the news, or even within our own neighborhoods.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and didn’t know how to cohesively put together my thoughts on it for a while. I’m not an activist, my day-to-day is pretty normal, with a more than a few strokes of good luck in how my current life has turned out, along with some lucky breaks and massively undeserved blessings along the way.

So this started off as my own reflection on the sociopolitical state of the people and this country, and how we got there. But after I started putting thoughts into words, I realized that there is still a piece I wanted to share about substance abuse and mental health before getting into some history. Because at the end of the day, there is no such thing as a ‘personal’ problem. Our individual stresses, concerns, hopes/fears for the future,  and past experiences profoundly and directly affects everyone in our personal lives, at this current moment. So I’m going to share some thoughts regarding drug use and addiction here, and will save my recent readings on history for a separate musing.

Are other countries out to manipulate and break down Western civilization, or are did the American public and it’s elected officials bring this upon ourselves? Or is it both?

Let me clarify what I’m referring to by ‘this’- this refers to ‘the perfect storm’ that is causing distance in our human relationships with our neighbors, community members, friends, family and the politicians charged with representing the public interest. Drug abuse, homelessness, political corruption, racial inequality, gender inequality, materialism, lack of contentment/gratitude/authenticity, and sheer apathy generated from mainstream media and social media.

I’ve been trying to decide where to place my energy- but I intended on this being a piece focused on my own reexamination of the history I was taught in school, but past events are so strongly connected to current events that I will be splitting this up into two parts- first some thoughts on where we stand with addiction, and then a bit on politics…

The War on Drugs is at a place where new synthesized compounds can be created at an exponential factor and imported, consumed, and enhanced long before public policy notices or catches up. I certainly don’t romanticize current events with dystopian literature, but prior to recent years, these things only existed in fiction. Elephant tranquilizers (carfentanil) and fentanyl have become the new face of the opioid epidemic, killing users with dosages no bigger than a grain of salt.  Drug users and addicts continue to be stigmatized, while local organizations, non-profits and community-driven efforts, (often founded by from those who have lost loved ones) are the main sources of small change and hope.   

The image of an addict is commonly associated with low-income, poor health, and then an array of character traits that are presupposed by the outside observers- laziness, lack of motivation, dishonesty, and anything that makes it easier for the observer to justify the human condition they are watching from their own safe space- this space is usually a sharp contrast to the reality of an addict on the street,  consisting of employment, housing, healthcare, and perhaps most importantly- they believe that they are loved, and love others.

There is a solid post on Medium that cites a variety of neuroscientist’s theories and anecdotal experiences,  hypothesis of this famed neuroscientist is- people need authentic, loving human connection. They need it. Connection can bring humans out of addiction, where will power alone may temporarily stop the physical drug use, but does not address the doubt/uncertainty/darkness left within someone’s mind. Do you feel loved and cared for, by at least 1 person, near or far throughout the week?

Do you know that at least 1 of your parents loves you, or you have at least 1 friend who truly has your best interests at heart? While I would hope that anyone reading this would have an abundance of those figures in their life, it is not the case for many. As hard or as painful as it might be, try to meditate on that for a minute…

And I’ll go as far as to ask- if you have not felt this way, how does it feel to try and envision a reality like that? Quite bleak, no?  It’s impossible to imagine what someone would be willing to do in order to perhaps experience these feelings for the first time.

Everyone I know in ‘our generation’ (current teens, people in their 20s and early 30s) knows someone who is or was addicted to drugs, in most cases far more than just one individual. It’s certainly a strange epiphany to make it into your mid 20s and realize your gene pool flipped a coin and you just  weren’t born with strong presupposed addictive tendencies, or weren’t born with existing imbalances in the wildly complex hormones that make up the feelings of joy and happiness that we experience.

And although this is a sad reality to grow up in sometimes, my hope is this- we all have current and recovering addicts in our life who we love. We know their humanity, and their ups and downs mirror our own, just to a greater extreme sometimes. So as our generation slowly becomes those who make public policy, hopefully we will not forget our friends, neighbors, and family who may have suffered, but are no less worthy of a vibrant and fulfilling life.

Addiction is complex, and I didn’t know any of this growing up.  “Woohoo for D.A.R.E!’ Wow. In hindsight, I really don’t know what to even think of the existence of such a failed program. It’s almost nauseatiing for me to think that the default is to recycle inaccurate, unproven, and exaggerated claims about drugs, when there is more than enough scientific studies that we could have started off with the facts to make our own choices. I learned how different drugs affect the brain in an API psychology class- not D.A.R.E, or anywhere else. I was also the first generation to grow up with the internet, and I’m sure that played a factor in it. The local police officers leading D.A.R.E maybe didn’t expect or know what as 8th graders or early high-schoolers, we could go home, open up google, and prove or disprove everything that they just told us. This is my anecdotal experience going to a public school that was ranked top 100 in the country.

Policy makers would rather save face, recycling politically correct yet factually false information (‘all illegal drugs give you cancer, they all destroy your brain, you can’t use drugs and function in society.’) Sooner or later, all of these statements are proven false, or at the very least, that issueing them as binary statements is incredibly dangerous. What happens when the first kid dabbles in drugs, and he’s ok! And then a second kid maybe tries a different drug, and then wow-he got accepted into a great college! And then new friends are made after high school, and perhaps you’ve made a new friend whose been secretly using drugs without your knowledge for months or years.

My point here is not to glorify drug use in any regard- because as much as I grew up with these experiences around me, the terrible, multi-faceted affects that have on individuals, friends, and family is undeniable. I’m 7 years out of high school and have lost a countless number of my peers in the that time frame.  The point should be that drugs, drug use, and addiction is far to complex to be reduced to a simple framework of abstinence and ignorance that my generation was provided.

So while the opioid epidemic ravages the country, there are promising funded studies that would’ve been unheard of 10 years ago. Ketamine has improved symptoms in clinically depressed patients much faster than any currently used pharmacological substance for 6 months. Psilocybin and LSD are being researched for a wide array of applications, including overcoming and addressing past traumatic experiences, increasing connectivity and empathy (the mid to post-psychedelic experience of ‘ego death’ is incredibly well documented), and improving the day-to-day of PTSD patients. There’s so much evidence for the applications of cannabis for various mental and physical issues that I won’t even begin to touch on here..

You can trace the early origin of ignorant prohibition and initiatives like D.A.R.E to a few policy makers… Everything I’ve learned has been from others around me as we’ve sorted out how to best support and love our own friends and neighbors. Addiction and drug use are influenced by social factors, income, mental health, family history, but. it is most certainly not caused by intrinsic personality flaws.

What allows this to still up for debate among policymakers?

Money. Pharma companies have a very difficult if not impossible time patenting naturally occurring compounds. Still want proof? Purdue, the manufacture of OxyContin, still had a sales team for their opioids, responsible for endorsing and recommending the drugs to doctors,  until just a weeks ago.

——

I’d be happy to chat with anyone if this made you feel something, give me a call/shoot me a message and I’d love to talk.

“If we could wipe it (The Holocaust) off of the history books, we would. But we can’t.” –Reince Priebus

“Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power. It only helps us when they (liberals) get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing…”- Steve Bannon

*(No word from Bannon’s fellow ‘Christians’ on this one).

“I did try and fuck her. She was married. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the bit phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look. I’ve gotta use some Tic Tags, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful- I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
-The President

This is the state of current affairs. And among the most urgent of current topics is the inability for opposing parties to discuss the same topics with the same premises. There is this insane game of moral absolutism going on, while the system of checks and balances in our Federal Government continues to fall.

Guess what. Obama, Bush, and Trump all sponsored bombings on multiple Middle Eastern countries, and they’ve all killed women and children along the way while preserving the safety of Americans, continuing the legacy of capitalistic imperialism, and everything in between, however you choose to view our international policy. Liberals are not all ‘good’ and conservatives are not all ‘evil’. The Right is not entirely fascist while the Left is not entirely regressive. But when you combine passiveness and the fear of speaking out with the presence of evil, the inaction of good is all that is needed for evil to triumph (paraphrasing MLK- ‘For evil to succeed, all it needs is for good men to do nothing.’)

Before I dive in, you know what was good news? Trump cancelled the Trans Pacific Partnership! Dozens were lobbying Obama to back out and it’s surprising to see Trump dismiss the topic already. I do agree that this seems to be largely missed by the liberal media, and could have been considered an international victory for the US, but that was before the ensuing week of executive orders followed….

Every military initiative in the last 50 years includes unintentional victims, but never before on the scale of civilian deaths in the last 15 years.

Chelsea Manning , who is vilified by the Right as a traitor, villain, etc. Is the Right aware that the video she leaked was of a US pilot blowing a van of Reuters reporters because they mistook the camera for a weapon? That publishing this info was considered Treason?

There are over 25,000 civilians killed in Afghanistan since 2001 who’ve had no established ties of any kind to terrorism, and an additional 200,000 civilians have been killed throughout the Middle East in that same time period. Terribly hypocritical to see MSM standing behind Wikileaks as it fits their agenda (as they broke news that the DNC was conspiring against Sanders and also released Clinton’s emails), but when they unveil the dark underbelly of US International policy, it turns into a witch hunt where the whistleblowers and dissidents must be made examples.

On the domestic front…

Quite frightening that after the Women’s March, there was a widespread opinion proposing there is no valid reason to protest in the US when you can ‘just look at see how women are being beaten and raped in the Middle East. Where’s the outrage there?’ Well, would it seem prudent to WAIT until that is the case in the US? Our domestic rape culture is entirely it’s own issue, and as of now is clearly not an issue for our current President.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/15/donald-trump-words-what-rape-culture-looks-like

In recent sports news…

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/baylor/2017/01/27/new-baylor-lawsuit-describes-show-em-good-time-culture-cites-52-rapes-football-players-4-years

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/12/college-football-sexual-assualt-jameis-winston

I cannot offer a solution, but a defense.

• When you read a headline, search for the opposing opinion- immediately.
• Why does the ‘other’ hold their opinion? Understanding and unveiling the current deception requires more effort than re-reading 1984.

The current system of checks and balances is being stripped away, as succinctly detailed by Yonatan Zunger in his near-viral Medium article. Yonatan, of Israeli descent, graduated from Stanford and served as a lead engineer at Google since 2003.

Ironically, Breitbart (the publication formally managed by Steve Bannon (Chief Strategist Strategy, aforementioned lover of Satan)) published a critique to the piece, but the article lacks any evidence or constructive critique, besides calling Yonatan’s premises ‘unfounded’ (all the more ironic, as Yonatan’s piece provides citations for every single piece of information he presents.)

If Trump’s policies do not affect your quality of life, take a second to realize how profoundly lucky you are, and that there are millions of people who need your help. Both the Right and the Left utilize misinformation, sensationalism, and fear mongering. It is up to you, to read deeper, question more, ask ‘WHY’ more often. The time to sit back and wait has passed. And if you do not agree, I’ll fight for you in the meantime.

This piece is meant to address the challenges in committing to a path of health. Health and fitness are closely related, but it is important to remember that there is a clear distinction.

You can be healthy without being “fit”, and the opposite is also true. If this is hard to believe, consider the following scenarios. It’s quite easy to be fit, without being healthy. Take someone who has *abused* anabolic steroids across their career, or powerlifter who has sacrificed all dietary guidelines for the “gains”. It’s sad to think about the array of regular people (not professional athletes) who have sacrificed their joints, cardiovascular health, and a variety of other important bodily system in the pursuit of a singular goal. A sumo wrestler could certainly overpower most people, but I’d also be willing to bet his/her HDL/LDL levels, insulin response, and blood pressure are off the charts. Health is the cumulation of the function (or dysfunction) of the organs, joints, muscles, and various bodily systems. Fitness could be generally defined as the process of utilizing, training, and conditioning the various energy systems to respond to increasing stimuli.

A notable and controversial aspect of Crossfit is their long-standing commitment to offer a tangible definition of fitness. And for all of the internet weightlifting coaches out there who dedicate YouTube channels to bashing on Crossfit, the organization frequently relies on the scientific method to create quantifiable analyses. Most critics will attack the culture and community surrounding it, but at the end of the day Crossfit is evolving into the cumulation of decades of cross-disciplinary athletic research. Again, this is my perspective of Crossfit from the top down. I’m not addressing the internal politics of Crossfit HQ, or the backyard Crossfit coach who lacks the confidence or knowledge to address faulty movement patterns during a workout.

So the next time you want to delete your Instagram account after seeing #fitfam everywhere, realize that it is possible to be healthy without ever stepping foot inside a gym. Most people I know just want help taking the first step. For example, doing yoga at home can increase your focus, flexibility, core strength, and confidence, preparing you for any kind of physical endeavor. My hips are as stiff as a board, as are most men who spend their time under heavy weight or who sit for most of the day. But I still get many benefits from yoga, and look forward to seeing the ways that it facilitates reaching my various goals. Admittedly, I first started to explore yoga because I needed more mobility for olympic lifting. A few years under a heavy barbell, combined with Crossfit and cross-training, seriously tightened up the majority of my musculature and fascia. In the words of Nahko Bear, “the body talks and meditation helps”. Find a yoga studio or teacher that understands the history and science behind it, and ideally has a basic understanding of kinesiology/physiology.

But here is the bad news regarding the dichotomy between fitness and health. For the majority of the population, simply picking one over the other is not possible. To think of it directly, each stimulus and environment that the human body is exposed to will either improve or decrease “health”. Most of the things offered in the grocery store decrease your health. In fact, nearly any food item you’ve seen a commercial for is probably bad for you. Think of all the Kelloggs & General Mills sponsored commercials. Well, eating a stack of Ego Waffles with Cinnamon Toast Crunch may not intuitively feel like a healthy choice, but hey, it’s part of a complete breakfast! Have a piece of fruit with some Egos, and voila, you now have a healthy breakfast! This is the marketing message spread by the masses and it is downright false.

The body is astoundingly successful at auto-regulation and maintaining homeostasis. To see examples of how finite this process really is, just glance at the array of life-altering conditions that occur due to a mere fluctuation in the production, re-uptake, or regulation of a hormone. The distinction between Type I and Type II diabetes is a great example. Both are life-long conditions that are connected to insulin. Type I is quite rare, and is a result of the body failing to naturally produce insulin. However, Type II (hypoglycemia) is essentially the poster-child for what the Western Diet does to the human body. Type II diabetes is the result of eating foods that spike your insulin too quickly, or release too much insulin at once. Protein and fat cause mild bumps in your insulin release, but it’s really carbohydrates that cause insulin problems. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup spike insulin faster than any other substance known to man. The fact that it’s still a legal ingredient is purely related to financial gain.

Sadly, although the FDA propagates a variety of factually invalid statements, the concept of “dessert in moderation” is not a joke. There is now scholarly work aiming to prove that sugar is more addictive than cocaine, and that alone should at least be a *small* warning sign. Marketing tells the consumer that there are an infinite array of problems with your body and your health, and that the solution lies in their product or service. Buzzwords like “gluten-free”, “paleo”, “light”, and “cleanse” dominate the nutrition world. Disclosure: I am not a nutritionist. But if you are consulting with a health professional about dietary changes, cutting out sugar is the most important step to improve every aspect of you life. You’ll even sleep better. Also, the Paleolithic diet refers to a specific diet popularized by Loren Cordain, and it only takes a quick Google search to find out what truly constitutes Paleo.

You are better off eating that 4×4 at In-N-Out than a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and humans have been drinking alcohol since the dawn of time. I’m not up on a high horse- I’ve crushed my fair share of dessert. Have a glass of wine, whiskey, whatever. But adding high fructose corn syrup, food dye, and a variety of other chemical additives is a recent development used to increase profit and decrease costs of manufacturing for the companies that want your money.

Life is about exploration and learning, and I promise anyone can adjust their lifestyle to enjoy their guilty pleasures. The takeaway is that if you pick one dietary component to focus on (that will have the greatest rewards in how you look and feel) start with sugar.

You can understand how the Atkins diet skyrocketed in popularity several years ago. The extremes on both sides of the spectrum become clear. Eating a huge bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch every day isn’t the best for your body, but going no-carb and eating bacon with every meal isn’t a good choice either. Find the middle ground that works for you. Most athletes need carbs for optimal performance, and a quick experiment would prove this to be true. If you’ve followed a demanding fitness regimen for a while, cut out carbs for two week, notice the decrease in energy, add them back into your diet, and watch your numbers go up…

Now back to my thesis. Don’t let anyone tell you there is only one way to do something when it comes to your body. Mainstream media, along with dozens of billion dollar industries, rely on making women feel that they are inferior. I’ll save the analysis of the situation for another day because it could easily comprise an entire series of posts and most men are far too willing to offer their expert opinion when it comes to the lived experience of women. There are so many genetic and environmental factors that change the way we eat, breathe, feel, and move. The evolution of the internet allows free research on any topic imaginable. This isn’t the case in many areas around the world. But for the majority of the U.S. citizens internet access is easy, and (I believe) should be viewed as the most impactful creation of our life time. We are the first generation that can Google a topic. Reflect on this mind-boggling opportunity for a second.

Anyway, don’t let my words and thoughts be the end of your lifestyle exploration. Try different things, get outside and play, enjoy your food. I went surfing for my second time ever, during high tide of the coast of Mexico last month. Needless to say, I felt like a fish out of water, but it challenged me and grew my love for yet another discipline that pushes the capabilities of your body and mind.

*The content of this piece is my opinion, but I did my best to include a variety of interesting links to build on your curiosity. I’m truly passionate about a massively diverse array of topics, and I’ll do my best to keep these pieces cohesive and coherent. Loved the article? Think I came across as a condescending egotist? Let me know either way! I will continue to write on Medium across a slew of topics, and look forward to engaging with new perspectives.