Living Long, Dying Well

Why this blog?

I have two main passions in my life. They are personal protection and improving and maintaining health. Both of these things became obsessions after I had to endure and survive a major disease and subsequent treatment and recovery beginning in my early 20’s and spanning to current day in my mid 30’s. I decided that if the universe allowed me to make it out alive, I wouldn’t squander the new opportunity. I would continue to earn my oxygen and live a good life. I was compelled to train and study endlessly to assure that no other person could easily take my life with violence. I would also study and implement whatever health related tactics I could find that would stack the deck in my favor against disease. When (if) my disease comes back, I will know that I didn’t go easily and without a fight. Thus, I had found my life’s work.

Focusing on fixing myself seems like the height of selfishness. I have been told this. But the reality is the longer and better I live, the more I can positively impact my son and family, the less of a burden I am on society, the more I can contribute to my community, the greater the ultimate impact I make on the world. What’s more, the more I learn and the better I live, the more I can share with people who have the same goals. I can provide some hope and motivation to my people. The longer and better we all live, the better we can die when it’s all said and done.

Just like my self-defense blog (growingupguns.com), I am using this space as a sort of journal. As something to give to my son in the event my cancer returns and I can’t discuss all of these important topics with him when he’s looking for some answers. Having a rough path laid out can save years, if not decades, of wasted time. So I view this place as a road map to Living Long, and Dying Well.

Why Should You Care?

I am extremely aware that there’s no reason for you to care up to this point. Me sharing any stories of personal suffering does little good for the world. The information my son gets if I die shouldn’t mean much to you. The thing is, I want you to live long and die well also. I love seeing my friends and family thrive. I always strive to make the postings relevant to the reader. If a health and lifestyle blog post isn’t actionable or at least fascinating and leading towards actionable, it’s not worth your time. I won’t waste your time.

I have done the work, and I want to point you in the right direction. I can save you years of floundering for information. I want to encourage you to become your own self-experiment, just like I have. We can’t always wait for an idea to be fully researched with human trials and approved by government bodies before we give it a try. We could be dead decades before anything is ‘official’. So we must use the information we have, our reasoning, and our trust in our bodies, to experiment and see what happens. This is ultimately the most scientific thing we can do. Stay skeptical of everything and demand results.

I will give you the best information I can find, with the caveat that I may be wrong. I reserve the right to change my mind in the future. Don’t take anything I say at face value. I’ll always share my source material for you to examine. I’m a mechanical engineer, not a doctor.

I intend to make good use of the categories and tags to allow quick access to the kind of information you’re specifically looking for.

I wanted a place to record and share my ideas, experiences, self-experiments, and noteworthy research and writings I find that contribute to having a productive and long life, while making the world a better place. Some topics that interest me that I want to explore are:

• Goal setting and goal tracking
• Keeping perspective and context
• Being realistic and meeting yourself where you currently are
• Results on a Look/Feel/Perform scale
• Dietary interventions for weight loss and management
• Dietary interventions as a tool for disease management/prevention and health
• Metabolic therapies and strategies
• Discipline and Motivation strategies
• Poking fun at the misleading and often disingenuous health advice our medical providers and drug companies give us
• Circadian biology and photo-biomodulation
• Sleep optimization
• Hydration and electrolyte status
• Fasting as a diet, metabolic, disease management tool
• Exercise as a tool for fitness, metabolic health, and disease management
• Flow state, meditation, breathing
• Combat sports like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA
• Weight training and general physical fitness
• Philosophies as they relate to living a complete and fulfilling life
• Philosophies of exercise and combat sports
• Food preparation, meal prep, good booze, good drink
• Supplements and their role in health and enjoyment
• Genetic research and using genetic testing to learn about ourselves.
• Mental game and ‘check up from the neck up’ mental health
• Topics that remind me why we’re trying to live a long life in the first place

If that sounds like something you’re interested in, please follow this blog.

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