Your Mission Statement

What is your mission statement? Why are you here? What are you here to do?

What is the next step you must take?

Bartram’s Garden

Last week, I went on my first ever field trip in college. It was for my American Environmental History class. We visited Bartram’s Garden in Southwest Philly. Sitting right on the bank of the Schuylkill, this garden was started in the mid 1700s by John Bartram, a botanist and friend to many of the founding fathers. Bartram travelled from Ontario to Florida, collected different species of flora, and propagated them back on his garden. This place soon became a spot of refuge for the founding fathers when they wanted to get away from the busyness of dmeocracy planning.

I decided to share part of my essay for my post today. I think it was meaningful. Hopefully you find it to be, too.

Though the origin story of United States is a rather sad story of Indian removal and genocide, the sentiment of a democratic republic which offers opportunities for all people to flourish is at the core of this country.  From the beginning, people from opposing cultures, beliefs, and ideologies were welcomed to come together, have difficult discussions, and learn to coexist among each other.  This is exactly what Bartram did in his garden: he brought plants together from opposite lands and helped them live next to one another in a symbiotic relationship. Just as different plants needed different soils and nutrients, so too do different ethnic groups and cultures have different needs.  

In the 18th century Philadelphia was the center of the nation, a true melting pot of ideas and initiatives.  If Independence Hall was the brain of the city, then Bartram’s Garden was the heart.  As in the body the heart is separated from the brain by about 18 inches, so too is Bartram’s separated from Center City.  The Schuylkill River, being the main artery that connected the head and the heart, could be likened to the aorta.  This primary blood vessel carried the lifeblood of liberalism and democracy from the floral assemblage of Bartram’s to the rest of the city, the nation, and the continent.  As we are sprung into action by the beating of the heart, so too were the founding fathers inspired to bring people from all nations, races, and cultures together in this one, United States.

Though my analogy may not be wholly accurate, I believe it touches on the importance of this garden in the history of our nation.  It’s really no wonder Bartram’s has withstood the test of time: the diversity of the plants and the community that keeps it thriving are the same diversity and community at the core of American identity.  Though our culture has moved away from the land, agriculture, and the love of the natural world, I believe places like Bartram’s can bring us back into harmony with one another.  Maybe a better understanding of our ecological home and the beauty within it might just help elevate us to a higher octave of humanity, an octave rich in appreciation of diversity and communal support of one another.  

I’ll be sure to visit Bartram’s again soon so I can be reminded of how, together, we can make this a better home for everybody.

Aaron Lemma

Back to the Basics

When embarking on a journey towards better health and more vibrant wellness, you must remember to keep things simple.

If the basics are not the cornerstone of your endeavor, you’ll soon find yourself overwhelmed. When things are too complicated and you can’t commit to all the changes you held yourself too, you’ll feel defeated. You’ll stop progress altogether because if you’re not all in you’re not getting the most benefit, right? Instead, your complicated plan shortly becomes too much to bear and you remain the same, still holding that extra 20 pounds, still gasping for breath after going up the stairs.

Let me take a moment to remind you of the basics, the bare necessities of living a healthy, balanced life. This doesn’t include a food scale or calorie counting, and there’s no need for a fancy fitness program.

The Basics:

  • Eat plants and animals
  • Avoid processed foods
  • Cook your own meals
  • Eat until you feel full
  • Pack your lunch
  • Find healthy snacks that don’t have too many simple sugars
  • Drink filtered water
  • Steer clear of sugar-sweetened beverages
  • Don’t have caffeine past 2pm
  • Move your body every day
  • Go for a walk
  • Run, lift weights, or go to a yoga class if you want to
  • Get 7-9 hours of sleep each night, depending on your own needs
  • Limit your screen time, especially at night
  • Take deep breaths
  • Spend time with your loved ones
  • Spend time with yourself
  • Allow yourself to laugh
  • If you slip up, forgive yourself and get back on track

If you implement these lifestyle practices, things will start to change. You’ll feel more energized and less lethargic. You’ll need less coffee and have more time to spend with your loved ones. Once you start, the momentum will keep you going. That cupcake you have in celebration of a good week won’t feel like a defeat but a victory. Small victories will compound and you’ll soon be miles ahead of where you started

It’s all about balance. If 80% of the things you do are healthy and 20% aren’t the best for you, you’re living a pretty balanced, enjoyable life. Forgive yourself if you slip up and move forward with a grateful heart. This is all about learning and growing.

I’m telling you, if you get back to the basics, things will change.

Pumpkin French Toast

I made French Toast for the first time this morning. Many don’t know this, but pumpkin spice is one of my favorite flavors. It’s my guilty pleasure. With some canned pumpkin and sprouted Sesame Ezekiel Bread laying around, I decided to try my hand at an American class, but with a healthy, fall twist.

Here’s my Pumpkin French Toast recipe:

The Batter:

  • 1/2 cup coconut cream
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 2 eggs
  • ground cinnamon
  • maple syrup
  • sea salt

The Process

  • mix batter ingredients together
  • put coconut oil in a medium saucepan
  • turn on medium heat
  • dunk both sides of bread into batter and place on warmed pan
  • cook until brown on both sides
  • serve with whatever you want (maple syrup is a good idea)

And voilà. There you have it. A not-too-sweet, not-too-savory Pumpkin Breakfast treat for these cooler fall months.

I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as Camille and I did.

Our Sun

Our sun is hot. Because of its hotness, it produces heat that travels to Earth as electromagnetic radiation. This radiation bounces off Earth’s surface and goes back towards the sky. As it travels back up, atmospheric gases trap the heat and Earth is warmed.

There’s a big difference between the sun being hot and the sun producing heat. Because the sun is hot, it produces heat. But the sun does not become hot because it produces heat; therefore, the sun’s hotness is a cause while the sun’s heat is its effect.

Our bodies are typically warmer than our environment. All the heat in our bodies came from heat (or energy) generated by the sun that’s travelled to Earth. Once here, it’s been been stored in the chemical bonds of plants through photosynthesis. When we eat these plants (or animals that ate these plants), we breakdown the chemical energy and use it for various reactions within our bodies. These reactions produce heat, so we produce heat. In this way we hold the power of the sun within us, but we are not the sun. We produce heat like the sun produces heat, but our likeness to the sun doesn’t make us the sun.

Instead, we are extensions of the sun’s rays that have made it to Earth. The warmth you feel while standing is the sun is the same warmth you feel when you touch your skin. This once unbounded, untethered solar energy is now inside you. Though seemingly contained, this energy is still free to change its environment by bonding unlike substances together. This is how bridges are built.

We are not the sun, but we can be like the sun (if we try to be).

Primal Patterns

My favorite health & fitness guru of all time is Paul Chek. He’s the founder of the CHEK Institute, a therapist, a coach, a father, a husband, a certified shaman, and more. He does medicine journeys, helps people heal themselves from the inside-out, and likes to stack rocks in his rock garden. He’s 58 years old and still does heavy deadlifts and one-arm pull ups. He has some deep insight into human experience and what it means to really live and love. If you want to hear him in a podcast, he has his own (Living 4D) and he’s a guest many times on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast and the Kyle Kingsbury Podcast (formerly called the Onnit Podcast).

Paul’s most famous work is his 2004 book titled How to Eat, Move, and be Healthy! It’s still in print, now in it’s second addition. This book is the health & wellness Bible, only it’s not full of general dogmas but specific, individualized program planning and execution strategies. I’ve been following the principles within this book for years with great success. As the result of this book, right now I’m in the best physical shape of my life.

Alongside dietary guidelines and lifestyle design protocols is a movement section. Here, Paul walks you through his trademark movement system called the Primal Patterns®. This system claims that no matter the exercises, there’s basically 7 patterns the human body can (and should) move. These 7 patterns are: Squat, Lunge, Bend, Push, Pull, Twist, and Gait (the movement associated with walking). These 7 movement patterns should be the basis of every training program—macrocycles and microcycles alike.

During the fall semester I lift with the track team two times a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. The lifts have been solid so far and I’m happy with my progress; however, I’m still trying to do some resistance training 4 days a week, leaving two lifts up to me and my programming. For these individual lifts I’ve been designing them with Primal Patterns in mind. I try to hit most of the primal patterns in a single session, ensuring my whole body is activated and staying balanced.

Here’s an example of my lift earlier this week and how the exercises match the Primal Patters:

  • Warmup Series
    • SL RDL into Curtsy Lunge (Bend + Lunge)
    • SL Tuck Jump (Squat)
    • Handstand Hop into Sit Through (Push + Twist)
  • Strength Series
    • Back Load Reverse Lunge (Lunge)
    • Wide Grip Pull Ups (Pull)
    • OH Floor Press (Push)
    • Cable Rotations (Twist)
    • Step Ups (Lunge + Squat)
    • Calf Raises (Push + Squat)

I highly recommend this style of training. It leaves no stones unturned and keeps your body loose but toned. It’s important to ensure your lifts support your whole body, not isolated systems. After all, our ancestors weren’t doing biceps curls. While there is a time and place for curls, the bulk of our movements should be moving in patterns our bodies were designed to move in.

Please look into Paul Chek, his Chek Institute, and his Living 4D Podcast. I can’t express how much I’ve learned from him (for free) on the internet. He and his teachings have truly changed the trajectory of my life. I hope they change yours, too.

Buy Organic to Save the World

Recent scientific studies have indicated that glyphosate, the active component in RoundUp, causes cancer. RoundUp and other pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, and fungicides are sprayed on commercially grown produce to maximize product yields while decreasing crops lost to insects, unwanted weeds, small mammals, and fungus. But these substances would be better categorized as “biocides” because they don’t just kill pests, weeds, rodents, and fungus but every living organism on a plot of land. This includes microorganisms which shape the soil’s microbiome. These microorganisms are critical for maintaining healthy soil, upholding humus (decaying, nutrient rich organic matter) integrity, supporting water retention, and recycling minerals for uptake by plants. When biocides are sprayed, these organisms are killed and what remains isn’t so much as soil, but dirt.

The crops produced on these commercial farms may have greater crop yields; however, there are many issues. These crops are loaded with carcinogenic pesticides like RoundUp, are less nutrient dense than similar crops grown organically (without pesticides), and result in massive food waste. It’s estimated that about half of the food produced in the United States is thrown away every day due to spoilage. Because these soils are devoid of microorganisms, there’s very little recycling of key and trace minerals necessary for healthy crop growth. The result is sick crops that strip the soil of life. When people eat these crops, they get sick (because of chemicals) and don’t feel satisfied (because the food isn’t nutrient dense), causing overconsumption and, eventually, obesity.

Organic farms work to rotate crops and avoid the use of damaging chemicals. These practices uphold soil integrity and yield healthier crops. Biodynamic farming is the gold standard of agriculture. This method of farming intermingles many different crops and animals on the same plot of land. As the crops use different minerals, the animals naturally fertilize the soil. The result is an ecosystem rich in diversity and microbial life. It’s been show that this method of farming can produce far more crops than the same portion of commercial farm, all keeping the surrounding environment intact. Commercial farming fails to do this because it’s labor intensive and cannot be scaled to levels satisfying to investors (yet).

Buying organic is better for your health and the planet’s health, but not all organic farms are created equal. Some “organic” companies are owned by large corporations like Kellog’s and Coke. Because there’s a demand for organic in the market, these organizations lobby to create laws around organic farming, lessening the once strict requirements to uphold an organic farm. To avoid confusion while shopping, try to only buy “Certified Organic” produce. If it’s not certified by an organization outside of the USDA (from which the bad standards come from) then you’re wasting your money on “organic” food that is pretty much commercial food.

Big Agriculture, Big Pharma, and Big Food are all massive entities that don’t care about consumer health but about their profit margins and return on investments. This is capitalism gone bad, where organizations lose their morals to make profits. But there is a silver lining to this whole capitalistic system: we can make a difference with every dollar we spend.

Every time you buy local, organic produce over commercially farmed crops, you are voting with your dollars. Have you noticed that the perimeters of grocery stores (where the fresh food is) have been growing and the aisles have been shrinking? That’s due to consumer behavior. When there’s a greater demand for real, organic produce and sustainable raised meat, companies will have no choice but to adapt. If you stop buying packaged, processed foods and instead buy local produce and products, that money is supporting organic farmers instead of big corporations.

It may not seem like you or I can make a difference with our purchases. But here’s a thought experiment: what if everybody in your town decided to stop buying packaged foods altogether. What would happen to your grocery stores? Odds are, there would be less cereals and more apples, less bonbons and more grass fed ice cream. This is a systems problem, but it’s solved by our own personal choices to buy organic, local food.

For all those people who say “but we can’t feed the world on organic agriculture,” let me remind you that it’s never been tried before. The market has never shifted so severely to produce that seemingly radical outcome. But we vote with our forks and our knives. If YOU begin buying organic tomorrow and buy organic for the rest of your life, I guarantee you will make more ripples than you think. This problem is not solved all at once but in the choices we make every day, every week, and every month.

The future is in our hands and our wallets. Will you be a part of the real food movement?

No Man Left Behind

Over 2,800 people died at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001. If I told yo the death toll could have been doubled because of one man, would you believe me? Let me tell you about Rick Rescorla.

Rick Rescorla was born in Cornwall, England. He always wanted to be a soldier. He eventually got his wish in 1963, moving to the United States and joining the fight against communism in Vietnam. Rick worked his way up to platoon leader, and was called one of the most effective and compassionate platoon leaders of the war effort. Fast forward about 20 years and he became head of security for Dean Witters, a stock brokerage/investment company later acquired by Morgan Stanley. The company occupied nearly 40 floors in the South Tower of the World Trace Center.

Rick did not take his job lightly. He had a profound sense of responsibility for the safety of the Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter employees, and every day he came to work to serve them. At the time, the Twin Towers were essentially the center of world capitalism. Rick believed this significance made the Towers subject to attack by terrorist forces. He brought in outside contractors to assess the building’s weaknesses. Alongside these contractor, Rick predicted the WTC would be bombed from the basement garage. He tried to warn Port Authority, but nobody listened to him. On February 26, 1993, Rick’s vision came true: a bomb was set off in the basement of the WTC and six people were killed.

Rick believed this wouldn’t be the last terrorist attack on the WTC. He advised his company to relocate to New Jersey, but the lease wasn’t up until 2005. So Rick took initiative. He did quarterly fire drills and required all Morgan Stanley employees to comply and evacuate (their offices were on floors 40-70). He prepared for what he believed was the inevitable, though nobody believed him.

On September 11, 2001, a plane flew into the North Tower. Port Authority got on the intercom of the South Tower and told everybody to stay put, that they were safe where they were. Rick didn’t buy it for a second. Instead, he grabbed his megaphone and evacuated every floor of Morgan Stanley. While people were running down the stairs (which had failsafe lighting he installed), Rick was going back up the stairs, singing “God Bless America” and making sure people moved calmly. He was last seen on the 10th floor, after the plane flew into the South Tower. He was going back up to make sure everybody had evacuated.

Rick successfully evacuated 2,700 WTC employees on September 11. Over 2,800 died. This is the untold story of American history, the story of a hero who wouldn’t settle for anything less than excellent peroration and effective execution. When the time came, he sprung into action, defying the odds and seeing his mission through until the end. One of the mottos of his life was “Leave No Man Behind.” Rick Died when the South Tower collapsed.

This is a truly remarkable story, but Rick is not superhuman. He was like all of us. He had his opinions and his shortcomings. He had fearful situations in life and went through divorce. He was always fighting authority and nobody listened to him. Regardless he was a leader, a hero. He was empathetic, compassionate, aware, selfless, prepared, confident, intelligent, and didn’t settle for anything less than his best. He had the Heart of a Soldier, as the book by James Steward attests (read this book and also the New Yorker article The Real Heroes are Dead if you want to learn more about Rick and his magnificent life).

Rick Rescorla changed the history of the world because he believed in himself and his mission. So can we.

How Not to Worry

Before I give away my secrets, I need you to know that I’ve had a lot of stressful, worrisome situations in the first 22 years of my life. I’ve worked in a fast paced restaurant and endured 14 hour days working on the golf course. I’ve studied hours for Organic Chemistry exams and submitted more papers one minute before their deadlines than I can count. I race other human beings around a track and have felt the pressure of wanting to perform well for my team, my coach, and myself. I started a business as a full time student-athlete-RA-tutor-catechist while still doing my best to make time for my girlfriend and family.

Stress, pressure, existential crises, nervous breakdowns, deep sadness…I’ve felt it all. I’ve lived it. But now things are different. When a challenge or obstacle is in my way, I remind myself of two things that help me reframe my situation and put things in perspective.

Here’s my 1 – 2 punch for stopping worry before it enters my being:

  1. Remember how much you’ve accomplished. You’ve made it through a lot to get here. You can handle this. You got this.
  2. You’re going to die. One day, you stop breathing and your days as a human being will be over. Whatever you’re up against surely counts, but doesn’t matter. This life is too short to be take so seriously.

There’s one final step, but it’s less of a mindset shift and more of a practicality. It’s to write down everything you have to do, prioritize what must be done first, and then execute. This helps me every time, no matter the situation. Worry turns into initiative and you can begin chipping away at the obstacles, winning small victories along the way. Action beats anxiety.

But that’s it. That’s the whole story. It’s about self confidence—you will accomplish the tasks at hand because you always accomplish the tasks at hand. And it’s about not taking this life too seriously. After all, we should be enjoying our existence, not dreading it.

Today I had to wake up at 5:30 am to lift. Today I was set to squat more than I’ve ever squatted before across 5 sets. I did it. Then I had to study for 2 hours before a test I didn’t yet study for. I studied, took the test, and aced it (hopefully). Then I had to study an hour for another test I didn’t prepare for. I studied. I did well. Then I had to go on a long run. I decided to go with the distance crowd for 7.5 miles. I did it. And I didn’t worry for a second.

This method doesn’t remove stressful situations. You will still have things to worry about, but it’s your decision to worry or to take meaningful action to accomplish your mission. I hope this perspective helps you choose the latter.

My Future Self

From January to July of this year, I wore a man bun. I kept the sides short and the top long because I wanted to, not because it was functional, easy to manage, or looked good. I wanted to. Long ago I vowed to not pay any attention to other people’s opinions. This is my life and I’m going to live it how I want, whether that means growing a man bun or doing yoga in the grass. My life and my terms.

I cut off my bun in July—I was ready for a change. Now, when I look back at pictures during my man-bun phase, I can’t believe how stupid I looked. The bun was pretty weak and I took way to long in between touch-ups. I looked silly and out of place, confused by whether I wanted to have long hair or be an athlete. Next time I grow my hair out, I’ll grow all of it out, not just the top.

But this has me thinking: I know I don’t care about other’s opinions, but when my future self casts judgement and blame, why do I listen? Who am I, really, if I’m constantly changing? Is my future self myself or is that another person, drastically and unequivocally different from who I am right now? If we’re serious about not caring about what other’s think, should that include ourselves, too?

Maybe we can learn from ourselves without judging ourselves. Maybe we can look at our past selves and love the person who became who you are right now. Maybe we can recognize that our future selves will want to look with distain on who you are now, but we are the one who can stop the judgement in its tracks.

Radical self love, now and in days to come. Learning from my past without judging it. Being who I am while loving who I was. This is what I want to be.