More than Meds

My grandpa loves bulad.

From my family’s home island of Mindanao, Philippines, bulad is fish that’s gutted and left to dry for several hours.  

It’s salty as hell.

As of this writing, grandpa is still around, pushing 85. 

But like many elderly Filipinos, he’s mired with health problems: 

High-blood pressure, fall risk, pre-diabetic, hypertension, and massively overweight.

He takes a daily concoction of pills to keep everything at bay.

Yet, despite three nurse daughters reminding him to stop, he continues to eat his bilad. He refuses to change his lifestyle.

He’d rather deal with the pills than give up his beloved bulad. 

I love my grandpa. I don’t mean to shit on the guy, but his story serves as a cautionary tale. 

And it’s just one of many. 

Pills & Fitness

If you make it to 85 but can’t live without the pills, can you really call that living?

According to the National Council of Aging, “94.9% percent of adults age 60 and older have at least one [chronic] condition, while 78.7% have two or more.^”

My grandpa has four. 

As a kid, I thought you get that way because you’re old.

Now, I know you get old because you stopped doing the things that kept you young. Or you never did them to begin with. 

Deep down, I’m sure my grandpa knows that he shouldn’t be eating bulad. But if it was that simple, he would’ve done it already. 

The problem lies in his mind. It may be an emotional attachment to it, a poor relationship with food, how he was raised, but more than likely it’s all of the above.

Eating problems are usually emotional problems. 

Looking good in the mirror is merely one aspect of health. 

Your mental, emotional, and spiritual health are also important. 

There’s only one way to effectively address all of these at once:

To treat the mind and body as one. 

The Fat Kid

My whole life, I’ve been overweight.

November 2022 is the first time in my entire life that I was in the healthy range. I dropped 30 pounds in about 8 months.

But for all of 2023, I’ve been stuck around the same weight.  

By January 2023, I ran a half and full marathon. I lift 3x a week. But I was still having trouble losing fat. 

Why?

Because of my identity. 

I’ve gotten used to being the fat one. And in Asian households, they don’t exactly hold back on their comments.

From a young age I’ve heard some variation or some joke about me being fat.  

I identified as the fat kid. 

I’d lose weight over some weeks, then self-sabotage and gain it back. I’ve been yo-yoing this entire year. 

Over time, I finally understood.

I’m an athlete now (a polymathlete ;). 

And it’s time I start acting like an athlete. Eating like an athlete. Thinking like an athlete. Working like an athlete. 

That “fat” kid is not me anymore. He was a part of me. But it’s time to break with that.

So from September 2023 until now. I was finally able to see downward progression on the scale again. 5 pounds down. 

I have about 10-15 pounds down until my goal.

The reason I tell you this is to show how pivotal understanding the body and mind as a unit is. 

In order to lose fat, you must be in a caloric deficit. No questions asked. It’s physics. 

But to commit to the caloric deficit is a problem for the mind, not the body. 

Therefore, in order to change the body, you must also change the mind. 

It could be a problem of identity like myself, or a poor relationship with food.

Whatever that is, you need to get to the bottom of that issue. 

Food problems = emotional problems = alcohol problems = drug problems = body and mind problems.

But don’t just take my word for it. 

Let’s see what one of the leading authorities on the mind and body has to say.

Spoiler alert, fast food is involved. 

Anthology of the Body and Mind

Pandas and Cancer

100 million bucks.

That’s how much Panda Express donated to City of Hope, the 8th best cancer center in the USA. These guys are at the cutting edge of cancer research. 

Last year they cured a patient of HIV and cancer at the same time.

Now, with $100 million bucks in their pockets, they’re going to build a first-of-its-kind integrative oncology center.

Not only will it have chemo, radiation, and standard cancer treatment, it’ll have acupuncture, meditation, herbal treatments, yoga, etc.

A blend of Western and Eastern medicine. 

Holistic care.

If one of the top cancer centers in the world is betting on holistic health, you probably should too.

If a fast-food company is betting on holistic health, you probably should too. 

Now, let’s take this even further. 

The Fountain of Youth

Your mindset can reverse aging. 

In a 1981 study by Dr. Ellen Langer, renowned Harvard psychologist, had 8 men in their 70s live in a house that resembled the year 1959 for a week.

Black and white TV.

Newspapers about Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Everything that defined life in 1959 was in that house.

4 men were told to live exactly like they were 20 years younger.

4 were told to live like they normally do, but just reminisce about the past.

Before they began, they were tested on different indicators of aging: such as

• Grip strength

• Dexterity

• Vision

• Hearing

The results were mind-blowing.

The independent group showed improved flexibility, dexterity, and posture. Even their vision improved.

They looked noticeably younger according to outside judges.

The independent group improved by 63% on an intelligence test.

But what’s crazier:

Even the control group had remarkable improvement.

They scored 44% higher on that same intelligence test.

By mindset alone, these men were able to reverse signs of aging.

Your body and mind are more connected than you can imagine. Experts are continuing to find evidence of this.

Holistic health, where we consider both the mind, body, and later spirit is key to living a long and healthy and happy life.

Unfortunately, most of us are still unaware of this.

Blame Reductionism

Many of us in the West have held a pervasive view on the mind and body for hundreds of years now.

The mind and body are entirely separate entities. 

This is rooted in reductionism.

Reductionism is a central component of science, one of the greatest inventions of humanity.

But it’s limited. 

In short, reductionism is trying to understand a whole system by reducing it down to its parts. 

While that’s important, it’s not always the best way to go about things.

You think of a car as a car. 

Not as a mishmash of 10^28 atoms. 

Yes, it has an engine. Yes it has a cabin with seats.

But you need everything for it to fulfill its function and concept as a car. 

When you have a flat tire, the seats may be in perfect condition, but the whole car is useless until you replace it/put on a spare. If the AC is broken, the car still works, but it’s highly inconvenient. 

If your brain exploded right now, you’re gone. Even if from the neck down, your body is in pristine condition. 

If you’re overweight, you can still live, but life becomes harder with every pound (or kilo for my metric friends).

Now multiply that onto the entire scale and complexity of your body and mind.

There are so many things that could be going wrong as you’re reading this. 

There are so many things that probably are going wrong. 

And your body and mind are working 25/8 to make sure you’re okay.

Your body and mind are not separate. 

When you’re stressed, you’re more likely to get sick. 

When you’re sick, you’re more likely to be stressed. 

They are a unified system, working together, not in spite of or against each other, which we’ve been led to believe by Western philosophy at large.  

End of Part 1

To be fair to my grandpa, he didn’t have the access to the knowledge that we do now. 

There wasn’t much discussion or science surrounding these concepts either.

Now, there is. No more excuses.

The core theme of this newsletter is holistic self-mastery, excellence in all aspects of life.

While we can talk about all the strategies, tools, systems, and habits, there is only one common denominator across all these things.

Hint: it’s the primary vehicle. The vessel with which you’re going to achieve these things. You’re stuck with it for life.

Your self. Your body and mind as one. 

Any meaningful improvement in life starts there.

If you’re subscribed to this, you probably already know that. If not, I hope I convinced you.

Start thinking up ways you can treat your body and mind as one. Remember the times in the past when the going was rough. Did you get sick more easily? Did you just feel more tired? 

Next issue, we’ll start formulating a concept of the body and mind, so you know how to think about it, and later implement on your journey.

As always, let me know what you think.

See you in 2 weeks!