Facing the Storm

Be like the bison.

The storm is on the hill,
The battle’s in the vale,
And the wind is like a blade
That cuts through every sail.
But they drive the storm before them
And the heights they shall assail,
Though the storm is on the hill,
And the battle’s in the vale.

- Rudyard Kipling

Reflecting

I love debunking clichés. But this one is true: while cattle flee snowstorms, bison turn towards them and walk towards the wind to get through storms faster. They grace the Wyoming flag, they are strong and resilient… and delicious.

Training

This morning’s whiteboard – AMRAP 15:

• 50 lbs. dumbbell single arm hang clean and jerk

• 5 strict pull-ups

• 10 cal. Bike

Then my “no sweat” exercise at my desk: the Gripzilla Tornado.

Fueling

Measuring

Even if you don’t plan to do anything about it yet, get a full blood panel done every six months or so. It is hard to think about metabolic and endocrine optimization without knowing the facts. Start there. If you have a One Medical nearby, that is where I go and it has worked well for me in terms of efficiency and value.

Supplementing

Your skin is a sponge. Don’t put anything on your skin that you don’t want in your body. For cosmetic and lotion ingredients, as a rule of thumb if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t touch it. Stone & Spear soap is made from tallow with omega 3s, vitamins, and choline. But few corporate toiletry brands would qualify in terms of chemicals I’d want in my blood.

Recovering

So it is worth avoiding anything on you that you don’t want in you. Does the opposite apply? Can you get the good stuff in your through your skin? It depends. For testosterone, topical is my favorite way to get it. For magnesium, I like bathing in magnesium flakes but there’s no definitive data on how well it absorbs. It is much more effective to take it orally.

Closing

Is it worth paying a premium for organic produce? The closer to the ground, the more it matters. Ground berries such as blueberries soak up a lot of pesticides from conventional agricultural practices. They are both my favorite fruit and the fruit most improved by organic practices.

See the rest in Produce Without Pesticides.