Me: As of 9/25/20 I am 38 years old, a husband, step dad, business owner, jiu jitsu and outdoor enthusiast.
My Why: Provide hope for the planet and human health. While short and simple, this statement is a life long journey for me and comes through two mechanisms. #1 BE the example #2 Build entrepreneurial ventures that support my WHY.
Food: We purchased our first CSA from Common Thread Farm in Madison NY so the majority of my food from June till current (December) came from vegetables, pastured meat from Berry Hill farms and venison. After completing a food journal for Andy Cieply to review, I realized I was not eating enough for my daily activity so I increased my fats by adding in organic sour cream, macadamia nuts, avocados and butter. I increased my protein by eating 1-2 GoMacro bars per day and a protein shake and increased my carbs by eating more rice, potatoes and some fruit. This felt great.
Training: My split for most of age 37 was training Jiu Jitsu 3 times per week which amounted to 15-20 live 5-7 minute rounds per week. I kept my strength training simple with one upper day and one lower day per week. I ensured I had one full rest day which normally consisted of walking and playing with Asher and one active rest day which consisted of mobility, hiking, or easy Z1 aerobic work (see below Z1/2) I did little to no isolated aerobic work as I get a high amount of that in BJJ. When I did test my aerobic capacity with either a 5k row or 60 minute mixed modal time trial, my lungs felt very well conditioned. As I get slightly older recovery is KING. Rest is your friend and proper programming is essential for continued health and improvements. I average 9 - 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Push the gas too hard and you will be recovering for 2-3 days after, hit the gas moderately and you can play all day, everyday.
Swimming and Biking (Z1/2): I have taken a keen interest in biking and swimming at age 37. I have always enjoyed swimming but never learned to become efficient in the water, until I started working with Molly Haberbusch who is part of the Hamilton College swim staff. Molly wrote weekly programming for me and also gave extremely thorough technique lessons. I highly recommend working with a swim coach to improve your swimming, this had a huge impact on my confidence in the water.
This year (Sept 10th) I purchased a 2021 Trek Dual Sport 2 Hybrid Bike. Its my first "real" bike I've ever owned. I have only completed a handful of rides on it thus far but its rides great.
Lifestyle:
This year provided its share of family challenges for us. Our son Asher was diagnosed with Cavernoma in his Brain stem Dec 4th, which resulted in us living at the ICU and rehab center at Galisano Childrens hospital for a total of 7 weeks, Feb 1 - March 16th. Ashers story was one of resilience and a level of bravery I have never witnessed before. We were surrounded by family and friends throughout the entire process which was a life saver for all of us and Andy, Jake, Jess, Bob and Steve held the fort down without a blimp at Co-Movement, we can not thank everyone enough. We are happy to say Ashers last MRI came back 100% positive and he has returned to a highly functioning, happy, adventurous 7 year old. For those that want a more in-depth look at his journey you can read about that here. (click on Read More About My Story).
The Coronavirus put a little pep into 2020! While it started off quite slow it def ended up being voted the party of the year. For the most part I stayed quiet throughout, as my main focus was maintaining a quality service and environment for all of the Co-Movement community. I did have numerous "ah ha" moments during this time period though...
- Frugality: If you did not have a budget prior to this, I bet most did after. When jobs become questionable (or lost), grocery trips become unpredictable, and you are used to spending on non essential items frequently, you start to go back to the drawing board and ask what is truly needed. In a country that is 100% overblown with consumption, waste and materialism, my hope is that scary times like this virus, make people appreciate simple living, debt free, budget consciousness, and an awareness around making purchases to truly increase happiness, not new cars, clothes, shoes, and more toys toys toys. And as a side note less consumption would also mean less bills which means less work which means more freedom to spend on your health, family, and being productive in this world. NOT spent wasting your life away working for a corporation that gives 0 f*cks about you. As a bonus you are also going to save the environment.
- It was a pleasure to see more people outside running and walking. There was at least a 50% uptick in people outside enjoying nature, raking leaves, playing with there kids etc. It felt somewhat nostalgic like Little House on the Prairie. Maybe this was because they were not at a job 50 hours a week or tied to their phone waiting for their next work email.
- A throw back to the 80's! KIDS PLAYING OUTSIDE. Its like a Sasquatch sighting. Kidding.....somewhat... but honestly this was amazing to see. Kids playing basketball and football in their front/back yards, walking dogs, playing at parks, so great!
- Co2 pollution reduction- less driving, more biking and walking = a healthier planet.
- I found it very interesting how quickly our governmental leaders can "turn it on" implementing executive orders for the workplace, travel, healthcare etc... Who would have thought state wide quarantines would happen, colleges and grade schools closed, retail, gyms, restaurants closed, and banks lobbies closed. Was this response overblown? Was this a political, economical re-set plot? Who knows, I'm not going to dive into that BUT I will say, imagine a world where we "turned it on" with our focus on lets say.........
1. Sugar- Maybe our healthcare system issues would be 50% solved overnight? I would say cutting 90% of sugar out of our food system wouldn't be any harder than shutting down all public schools right? Or maybe this wouldn't make the pharmaceutical and major corporations such as Pepsi very happy? But protecting our kids from this virus makes people happy...... but wouldn't making our kids healthier, not obese, functional etc be a strong enough emotional cause for action?
2. Environmental protections- Imagine a world were you could eat clean fish or drink clean water. Ahh that was just 10-20 years ago. This couldn't be any harder than shutting down all non essential businesses could it?
3. Student debt- Why do colleges cost 50k a year for an education that is suppose to "setup" our youth for a successful future? But hey....FYI, we are going to load you up with 100+k in debt and $600/month payments for that next 15-20 years...no biggie, you are educated and prepared for all that life throws at you...minus having the freedom to change careers, work part time, be a stay at home parent, volunteer etc.... because you have to make your payments. Providing reduced cost education and/or pushing trade schools couldn't be any harder than lets say giving all Americans $1200 checks overnight fresh off the cash print machine?
4. Clean food - Wheat, corn, soy the three major food groups in America. The saying goes, you are what you eat and BAM we have the answer to 90% of our health problems. Cleaning up our food sources, pushing organic, local farms, CSA'S, and Vegetable consumption couldn't be any harder than lets say.... spending $1+ billion on vaccine research for the Coronavirus.
5. The stock market and your retirement- For those that rely solely on investing into companies you don't understand/control and into a system who's algorithms change daily and you don't understand, I would recommend finding other sources of passive/semi-passive income to diversify your portfolio. Ie: real estate, a fun business, venture capital, etc... Having your 1M nest egg drop to 600K in 7 days is no fun. If you were a few months/year from retiring you most likely would be set back 2-4 years, but luckily it bounced back quickly..... for now. Your best solution, work in a field you love and dont think about retirement.
6. Electricity and food. While neither of these supplies got shut off, they easily could have been. Imagine the supply of oil or electricity being shut off for even 7 days how that would affect your everyday life. It would be devastating to the average family. My recommendation, buy a generator, start a garden and can food, buy a chest freezer and stock up on meat and blueberries, have some bulk items on hand such as rice, and buckwheat, buy a smoker (the original way of cooking meat), and consider investing into solar and powerwalls. With the exception of solar, these simple measures are inexpensive but would save you from mass panic and would be a hell of a lot easier than eating tree bark.
Additional Observations:
- I'm amazed at how many people had a big uptick in happiness and admitted they wished life stayed "this way" minus the "virus" of course. What's that say about our constant 24-7 insanely crazy lifestyles? Also, the number of introverts that LOVED not having to be around people constantly, this was cool to see. Hopefully in the "new world" this is taken into consideration
- Small businesses got crushed. While the PPP program and EIDL was an option, many did not apply or receive these benefits and as a result went bankrupt, foreclosed on real estate, broke rental leases and closed businesses that were near and dear to their heart. Businesses that make a nice living for families, bring charm to local small towns and give local workers a place to take pride in. The Policy Makers and Policy Police who write and implement these shut down laws still receive a pay check and in the majority of cases never owned a business. Two simple solutions for fairness would be to 1) Close large corporate businesses such as Walmart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, McDonalds, etc.. 2) suspend government employee paychecks if in the event the economy needs to shut down businesses. Leaders lead from the front right? Well we all know this is certainly not the case with our government. I have the highest level of empathy for all small businesses who had to deal with this horrendous situation. May the future bring better policy decisions and support for what once made America great, the small business.
-The stock market has proved its no indication of a healthy or unhealthy economy, 88% of the wealth in the market is controlled by 1% of the population. The health of our economy should be measured in the health of our citizens and our national debt. Imagine seeing that on a scorecard versus the Dow Jones.
- Many businesses have realized they are more profitable and more efficient with having employees at home. Imagine if 8 hours of office work could be completed in 6 hours at home in pajamas. That is 10 hours a week added to your life or 520 hours a year or 20,800 over a 40 year working career. Imagine what that time could be spent on.
-The Rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Billionaires increased their wealth by 565 Billion from the start of the pandemic to June 1st 2020. Hunger Games anyone?
- Lastly.... being healthy, strong and resilient is going to become a major theme as new strains of viruses and bacteria keep finding themselves into our anti-biotic resistant bodies. The best plan for protection is spending considerable time on your HEALTH.
FOOD, SLEEP, MOVEMENT, POSITIVE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT,
NATURE, SUNLIGHT.
Natural selection has been a real thing since the dawn of existence, lets not forget that.
I have true hope and faith that the energy emanating throughout the world currently can and will change course. Newton's first law of motion - sometimes referred to as the law of inertia states an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. We need to be that UNBALANCED FORCE and act as one COLLECTIVE species to reverse our current direction and steer towards positivity, health, empathy, and have a clear understanding that OUR individual actions are always connected to the collective (people, earth, animals). The average of all actions, in the end , will determine the direction civilization heads.
Books: Stuck to some fiction to rewire my brain and give myself another viewpoint on the world from a fantasy perspective.
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the rings trilogy
Mastery: George Leonard
Lessons In History
The Book of five rings
I Wave
Find Wonder in the Ordinary
Atlas Shrugged (full version)
The Hobbit
Transformation JG Bennett
Dirt to Soil Gabe Brown
Everything I want to do is illegal Joel Salatin
Folks This Aint Normal Joel Salatin
Business:
Hamilton College training + weekly newsletter
Launched Co-Mo Collective newsletter
Brought back the client of the month
Head Over Heels amazing growth and resilience during COVID.
Launched our Co-Movement coaches certification program - certified 3 new coaches:
Denmark, Rochester and Canastota.
Canceled Costa Rica Retreat
Beaver Stickz company launch - Asher has sold 135 Beaver Stickz !
Fit Kids Fit Future- big project over the last 6 months, more to come with that...
Favorite Podcast: Zach Bush and Rich Roll
To sum this sucker up, we have approx. 60 more years of soil life. The decisions we make TODAY with our food purchases, farming practices, composting and energy conservation WILL determine if our children and grandchildren have a world to live in, our not, NO ONE is coming to save us other than the COLLECTIVE working together and becoming one big ASSET, not liability.
Favorite Movie: Kiss the Ground
Favorite picture:
Favorite Quote:
“After tragedies, one has to invent a new world, knit it or embroider, make it up. It’s not gonna be given to you because you deserve it; it doesn’t work that way. You have to imagine something that doesn’t exist and dig a cave into the future and demand space. It’s a territorial hope affair. At the time, that digging is utopian, but in the future, it will become your reality.”
—Björk
Travel: Road trip driving to Winter Park FL, then to Asheville NC and back home, 3 weeks total trip. Our travel was very limited due to COVID.
Biggest realization: A child belly laughs multiple times per day, adults maybe one time per month. Our society is lonely, isolated, and deeply sad which in return has taken an unprecedented toll on the health of our environment, politics, bodies, minds and love for one another. Humanity has lost purpose in their lives and we are searching for happiness and fulfillment through our iphones and negative news. The world needs to focus on Gandhi's quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Our inner vision is manifested in our daily actions; pollution, consumerism, poor diet, hateful words and violence. Never do you find a person who loves their life partaking in these habits. Its clear exactly where our society stands with their inner vision. The government, your job, the news, the weather, where you live, a vaccine, your spouse, a mask or your bank account, none of these will bring you the happiness you are striving for. Bringing value to others lives, bringing value to this earth, bringing value to animals, this brings happiness. Love and you shall be loved.
Bring on 38!
Josh