How to Walk Slowly

Unless you’re an intergalactic voyager on The Axiom (the spacecraft in Pixar’s WALL-E), you probably have to do some walking on your typical day of work or school. Generally speaking, there are three ways to walk: slowly, normally, or quickly.

To walk normally is to walk like the average person, at an average speed. To walk quickly is to walk fast enough to break a sweat on a cool fall morning. This usually means you’re running late. Something went awry or you didn’t plan your day precisely enough. You are now uncomfortable and on the defensive. You don’t notice anything spectacular during your walk.

To walk slowly is to stroll, to be so aware of your surroundings that the space around you becomes a temple; the ground beneath your feet becomes hollowed ground. Everything looks different, from the dance of ginkgo leaves to the wave from your neighbor. What regularly are happenstance encounters become meaningful moments, important enough to change the course of your week. As the dragonflies make love in front of your eyes you’re reminded of your place in the universe, what this all is really about.

In order to walk slowly you cannot be late or on time. You must be early. To be early, you must plan ahead. And though scheduling your day seems contrary to allowing the spontaneous forces of nature into your day, it turns out to be the only way that anything random can happen.

Plan extra time to walk, whether it be 20 minutes to campus or 3 minutes from your car to the office. This extra time may be the catalyst for a breakthrough idea or important relationship.

Summer Credits (2019)

On this last day of summer vacation, I reminisce. Here are some of the things I did this summer:

  • Buried a friend
  • Caddied at Stonewall
  • Ran 2-4x per week
  • Lifted 4x per week
  • Did Yoga 4-7x per week
  • Read three books
  • Listened to a lot of podcasts
  • Cooked dozens of eggs
  • Made tea and drank coffee
  • Shadowed a doctor
  • Visited Yellowstone National Park
  • Learned how to create a photograph
  • Photographed a black bear
  • Launched my first online fitness program
  • Made my first dollars online
  • Went Yard Sale-ing with my girlfriend
  • Sold Yard Sale stuff on eBay with my girlfriend
  • Went to Atlantic City for the day
  • Learned how to swim
  • Swam in Lake George
  • Took a bath in Lake George
  • Went out to eat many times
  • Cleaned my rented house from top to bottom
  • Weeded my front slope and planted flowers with my mom
  • Trimmed hedges on my front slope and at my Grandmom’s
  • Drank espresso with my Grandpa
  • Felt Grammy by my side
  • Hangout and worked out with my best friend, Paul
  • Wrote a poem
  • Had some good dreams
  • Visited a graduate school in Chicago
  • Ate Gelato on the Chicago Riverwalk
  • Drove 9 hours to Toronto with my girlfriend
  • Visited a graduate school in Toronto
  • Drove 10 hours back from Toronto with my girlfriend
  • Stopped and visited my great Aunt & Uncle and their home
  • Drank Dandelion wine
  • Ran 800s with my boss
  • Watched Fast and Furious movies with my brother
  • Helped one of my best buddies get a job
  • Smiled a lot
  • Laughed more
  • Cried often

I am full of gratitude and ready for another chapter.

Hoka Hey.

Commit to Something Meaningful

When you commit to doing something every day, there will be days when the commitment seems unimportant. I committed to blogging every day for the rest of my life. Today I woke up in Canada and drove 500 miles home. And here is my daily blog post.

I don’t know what this blog will bring me. Neither clients nor notoriety have manifested over the past month from my daily posts. But I believe in what I’m doing. I believe it is meaningful for me to write this blog every day. I’m confident one day it will be meaningful to others.

Put yourself in situations where you do what you don’t want to do everyday. I can’t promise you glory; I can promise you perspective.

Double Espresso, Long

Toronto has an espresso bar in every neighborhood. Back home, there’s one espresso machine every 50 square miles. For an authentic wannabe Italian like myself, nothing says manhood like a black, so-bitter-it’s-sweet cup of roasted beans. It’s my heritage. So we came across Baretto Caffe, ranked one of the top 100 restaurants in Canada by the Yelp masters.

Tucked away in a medical park, the barista at this unique café made me the best, strongest, most magnificent espresso I’ve ever had. It was so potent, surely medically unsafe. I was buzzing for hours. He gave it to me free of charge in exchange for a good review. They will get a good review.

This is a powerful lesson: give your best away for free. The value will come back to you. It always does.

Toronto Beach Volleyball

Most wouldn’t expect Toronto to be the beach volleyball capital of the world, but 100 courts set up on the shores of Lake Ontario would suggest otherwise. That’s hundreds of people playing beach volleyball in a city that, frankly, I didn’t know had a beach. I’m again reminded that preconceived notions are usually wrong, that reality is usually more substantial than our dogmatic beliefs.

So far my first six hours in Toronto have been special. Sushi pizza, skipping stones on Lake Ontario, ice cream on Queen Street, and making some new Canadian friends have all been highlights.

I have no expectations for tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself.

Go to a Concert

If you’re struggling, in a funk, or out of ideas, go to a concert headlining a band you’ve never heard of. You will be around people you’re not used to and hear the battle cries of a tribe you don’t belong to. Music will sound new and fresh. Rhymes will feel like daggers in your chest. You’ll see dance moves you never knew were possible.

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll see yourself in these strangers—you, just living a different life. You might experience a feeling of unity and oneness. This will be worth the price of admission.

You have only to take a risk and the opportunity to grow will present itself.

When Grandmom Makes You Breakfast

…you have to end your fast. It’s that simple. Whether you’re fasting for 16 hours or 5 days, if your grandmother wants to make breakfast for you for whatever reason, you should oblige. No health benefits can outweigh the fullness of spirit you receive from a homemade breakfast from one who loves you indefinitely.

So I ended my 70 hour fast after hour 36. I didn’t fail, I chose love over my own egotistical desires. I hope I chose eggs and bacon next time, too.

That End of Summer Feeling

You know it. Everybody has felt it. It’s that feeling when your heart sinks and you realize this time of carefree, easy wandering has come to an end. Though you’ve been working this whole time, you tell yourself, “it’s time to get back to work.” And though every day has been a blessing, you now begin to cherish what little time—if any—you have left to be free.

These last days of summer are squeezed until every drop is salvaged. We do everything we’ve put off until now, and we reminisce of the good times we had in the past months. We appreciate the past and look forward to the future, full of fear and hope and angst as we anticipate the stories of our lives. These final days and beautiful and surreal. They are treasured for they are few.

The real winners in life are the ones who recognize that every day is a a day in the last week of summer. Every day is to be cherished, to be experienced fully. Nothing is to be left on the table. A fall is always around the corner, so this is a time for gratitude.

God bless this final week of summer.

Fasting For a While

This weekend has been full of love and laughter. My family and I have been coming to spend time at Lake George with our extended family ever since I was a baby. Every time I’m here I feel so much joy and my carefree spirit is reignited. The conversations have been good and the food has been better.

But every good vacation must end, and now it’s time to get back on track. Senior year of undergrad starts a week from tomorrow, and I’m not quite ready yet.

To prepare, I decided to do a 70 hour fast. That means from Sunday at 7:43 pm until Wednesday at 5:43 pm I won’t eat any food. I am allowed to drink water, herbal tea, black coffee, and take mineral supplements, but that’s it.

The benefits of doing prolonged fasts like this are immense. From boosting cellular atophagy (while promotes healing) to healing the digestive track to giving your blood sugar a break from being tortured, fasting has proven benefits. Recent studies indicate fasting may also have an impact on increased longevity and a lessening the probability of contracting a chronic disease. My longest fast to date is 43 hours. I’m going above and beyond here. I want to see what I can do.

It’s completely healthy to fast. It’s a healing modality, and I want to learn how to heal in any way possible. It’s my mission on this earth. Here’s to. Successful 70 hours!

Consistency Over Perfection

We don’t have the most glamorous Instagram page. We don’t have the most beautiful first product. We don’t have the baddest blog on the internet. We don’t have fancy filming equipment and personal photographers. We don’t have our own gym.

But we have a dream of helping people discover who they really are through meaningful exercise. This is how Paul and I became who we are now. It was through suffering and growing during hard workouts, stressing and straining over barbells that were sick of being lifted. Our dream grew as our passions grew deeper. And we’re still just figuring it out.

We won’t have the nicest Instagram page. But we will show up consistently every day until this mission is done. I will blog every day until this mission is done. We may not have thousands of followers, but we have each other’s backs. We’re going to make some waves. We hope you’re there to catch them.