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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Can intense exercise or clean eating become a substitute
addiction for those in recovery?The gym is usually one of the
first things that people in recovery, I feel like cling to.
But like anything else, you worship that.
That becomes your new alcohol, man.
That becomes all you think about, all you prioritize above
anything else. So where it can be a beautiful,
(00:21):
beautiful place and a beautiful outlet and just the most healthy
thing possible, Too much of anything, as we all know, can be
our downturn. All right, welcome to Running
(00:47):
Free. I'm your host Jesse Carriage.
I'm here with my Co host Justin Mazars.
What's up, Justin? Happy Monday friends, how we
doing? Happy, but they don't know.
We're recording on a Monday. Happy day.
Happy day. Oh, happy day.
Speaking of happy day, dude, this is volume two of our
variety pack. It's our version of Ask Us
Anything. We ask our audience, our amazing
audience. Like what do you want to know?
(01:08):
Right? And it could be silly, it could
be funny, it can be deep, it could be science based, fitness,
anything and everything in between.
Justin and I just kind of feel them.
And then I'll say this, we intentionally do not over
prepare for this episode. So we have the questions.
We're going to dive into it. So I'll I'll just kind of say
the first question, Justin and then we'll just dive into it.
I'm really excited to see where this goes.
(01:30):
So the first question comes fromMatt in Dallas, TX.
Shout out to Matt in Dallas. Here's his question.
So it has to do with P. Love Matt already.
Yeah. All right.
So Matt's question is, what's the weirdest color a vitamin or
supplement has turned your urine, and do you adjust your
supplement intake based on that color?
(01:54):
Unfortunately, there's a lot of validity to the the statement of
supplements changing your urine color.
And yeah, finding that out for the first time was an experience
I remember. I specifically remember exactly
what supplement it was. It was GN CS Mega Men Sport
Multivitamins, and I started taking them and I was like, all
(02:14):
these great, like we're going back like 15 years here.
And then I remember obviously peeing and being like, uh oh,
what is that? Why does it look like that?
It's like orange and not what itshould be and it smells weird.
Was there something like when you take those big like
all-encompassing like multivitamins, there's so much
stuff in it. Do you know what it was that was
messing with your pee or was it just too much?
(02:34):
But if you look up or go online and look up any kind of comments
or research on GNC's Mega Man's More Sport Multivitamin, a lot
of people, I'll have some funky peep from it too.
So I'm not I'm not alone. You're not alone.
I've got no, you know, I've got no experience with urine.
It's probably because I don't pay attention.
Like literally when I'm peeing I'm just kind of like
daydreaming because it's probably the only like quiet
(02:55):
moment I have of my day. I hope you have good aim.
Yeah, I hopefully have good aim my wife would tell me but I no
dude I got. I will say this though, I've
I've never experienced like I'venever like actually went to
urinate and I take supplements and and like noticed anything
problematic. However, I am aware that there
are some supplements that can change the color.
(03:16):
I only pay attention to hydration levels like that to me
is it's anonymous with, with, with urine color.
And, and I'll just add that I dothink, you know, be cautious
whenever you take a multivitaminand make sure you're not just
covering all of your bases and in so doing taking a whole bunch
of crap that you don't need. So I don't take a multivitamin
personally. I try to get all of my vitamins
(03:38):
and minerals and nutrients from my diet.
And then I supplement my diet with supplements.
And that's where we've talked before.
Fish oil, creatine for both it'sa nootropic and for performance.
I mean, I can go on whey proteinand there's some other things
that I take that are specific tome, especially around like
stress management. But for me, like if you're, if
you're taking a lot of shit and you're peeing weird, like it's
(03:58):
probably what you're taking. But my, my caution there is
basically just like don't, don'tover supplement.
Try to get this most you can from your vitamins and excuse
me, from your diet. You know, it's super easy to
just assume you're covering every base by just taking one
pill a day, but you got to understand exactly what's in it,
what the daily value percentage is as well of each.
(04:19):
I started recently taking universal animal pack for multi,
but mostly because there's a lotof like nootropics and
adaptogens and like mushroom complex and stuff in it.
So it is unfortunately 16 pills,but it's, it's been, it's been
nice, I think. But to your point, I mean, it's
another tool in the tool belt that shouldn't be where we're
putting all of our, our money. And you, like you said, just
(04:41):
whole food is where we should begetting the majority of all of
our, you know, micros and macros.
Agreed, Matt also said. By the way, I didn't read this
part but he goes quote it feels like I'm dumping A Piggy Bank
into the toilet bowl. Matt, we got to talk, bud, what
are you taking? Yeah, maybe we could follow up
with him. All right, Cool man.
You want to take the next one. Sure, peptides.
(05:03):
Another hot up and coming topic that I was very excited to see
on the list. So the question is, are either
of you currently on any peptide therapy regimens so?
No, you go. No for Jesse right now for me is
a no as well. I will say that I have tried a
few over the last five years or so, specifically TB 500 and BPC
(05:27):
157, which I feel like are two of the pretty common ones in our
bodybuilding nutrition workout world.
They're injections meant to be, you know, helping repair
ligaments, tendons, all things joint damage, muscle damage.
So I dabbled with that with numerous injuries over the years
(05:47):
for my shoulder, my elbow and myback.
There's oral forms as well, but getting them is not the easiest
right now, obviously, because it's a very Gray area.
I know RFK was talking about potentially bringing these to
life more and making peptides like the new as normal as the
medicine that we see today, which I would love to see.
(06:09):
But I think there's a lot of research that still needs to be
done on a lot of these. But the research that is already
out there with many clinical studies and and data to prove
especially on TV 500 and BPC 157.
Sounds like a like a nemesis in the Terminator.
Body protective compound is whatthe BPC stands for.
(06:30):
And I would encourage anybody to, to research it and see, you
know, if that could be somethingthat you're looking, if you're
asking because you're interestedin and potentially, you know,
not dabbling, but you know, bringing that into your
supplement sack, like please do research and reach out.
We're always happy to answer anyquestions.
But I'm a big fan of them and I hope to see a lot more of them
(06:52):
coming up with, you know, minimal side effects and a lot
of data and research to to support.
Yeah, that question was from AJ in South Carolina, and he
actually lists out what he's taking.
And when I started, when I started reading it, I was just
like my brain just shut off. It's CJC 1295.
I'll try to say these words. IPA moralin.
This next one sounds like a sorcerer from like the Lord of
(07:14):
the Rings, he said. I think it is after training I
take Ghana Doralin. Is that like?
CDI thought you weren't supposed.
To he says he takes that for testosterone production.
Yeah, gun in my head right now, Jesse sounds smart.
And answer the question, what isa peptide?
And I'm dead. So I'd I'm not there yet.
I'm typically a late adopter when it comes to some of these
things. But if you're doing it and AJ
(07:36):
here is doing it, then I'm, I'm curious, I'll say that.
Who would you describe, Justin? I'm just curious like who do you
think peptides are right for? Peptides I feel like are right
for people who have tried many other modalities in order to
help with pain management or depending on what the peptide is
like testosterone production. You're have hyper gonadism like
(07:56):
your yours truly over here. You know, that could be an Ave.
to explore and see prior to going on, you know, full out
TRT. But like for the inflammation,
the pain, the the ligament and tissue repair and reproduction,
like doesn't have to be a significant injury, but an
injury that's been there for a while and doesn't seem to be
getting better with physical therapy and, you know, managing
(08:16):
with mobility exercises and really trying to cover all your
bases like the multivitamin and like everything else, it's just
another tool. It's not something that I would
put all of my faith in as this is going to change my world.
All right, there you have it. This question comes from Rand in
New Mexico. Great question.
By the way, this could This could probably be an episode
(08:37):
unto. Itself.
It's a great question. So can intense exercise or clean
eating or maybe and or clean eating become a substitute
addiction for those in recovery?My words, not his, but basically
like if you replace or if you get healthier with fitness, can
that itself become its own addiction?
(08:58):
Why don't you take this one first?
Yeah, again, Ran, great questionman.
And this is something that I feel like I have seen first
hand, especially in the recoveryspace.
Whereas with anything else, you know, you're, you're looking for
outlets, you're looking for avenues to to help with
everything that you're going through.
The gym is usually one of the first things that people in
recovery, I feel like cling to many reasons, not just for the
(09:21):
indoor friends, but a lot of us are angry.
A great, great outlet to continue to let that out in a
healthy way. But like anything else, you
worship that. That becomes your new alcohol,
man. That becomes all you think
about, all you prioritize above anything else.
If you don't get to the gym in aday or something comes up and
prevents it from happening, and I'm speaking from my own
experience here, It will fuckingruin your entire day and you
(09:44):
will be miserable from it. So where it can be a beautiful,
beautiful place and a beautiful outlet and just the most healthy
thing possible. Too much of anything, as we all
know it can be our downfall. So while having that the gym as
you're high up on your totem pole of, you know, outlets and
(10:05):
you know, things to help with all the thoughts that all of us
in recovery deal with, it's fine.
Like having it up the top is great, but I would not make that
the your God because if you do, you're going to be disappointed
down the road quickly and it's going to.
Agreed. Agreed.
I'm going to I'm going to detachthe two and then just hit him
quickly on their own because it was exercise and clean eating.
I'll just call that nutrition. I think this the the simplest
(10:28):
straightforward response to the eating part is 100% that can
become an addiction really fast.I mean, it is an actual
addiction that people talk aboutfood addiction.
But if you're so hyper focused and obsessive and neurotic about
counting calories and macros andthen that translates over to
check in your how you look in the mirror and the scale, you're
(10:50):
quickly developing this like number base compulsion.
And I think that can go off the rails really quick.
So I think with eating, and especially because we always
have to eat and we always have to make these decisions like
throughout the day, every day ongoing for the rest of our
lives, I think that can become an addiction super fast. 100%.
Exercise I I don't want to repeat anything you said,
(11:11):
especially around like if I don't work out, how do I feel
because it's not good grumpy as my kids would say.
But one thing when I was thinking about this question
before this episode, one thing that jumped out to me was like
some of the classic indicators of addiction is that your
addiction is disabling you from like taking care of
responsibilities. It's impacting your work, it's
(11:32):
impacting your relationships. You're investing time here with
consequences that are hurting all of these things over here
that matter. So when I look at a specifically
through like the classic definition of an addiction,
training can become an addictionreally quick.
And anecdotally, I, I can recalltimes where like, you know, you
have like this crammed day and you have all of your
responsibilities that you have to take care of, including your
(11:52):
family and your work and your training and everything else.
And I can recall times when I made decisions to train when it
caused friction either in my marriage or with work.
And then I had to like, stress to catch up or repair those
things. And that is because at times I
can have an unhealthy relationship with my fitness
because I'm relying on it so much to get that equilibrium and
(12:16):
that mental health, which I should be able to achieve as
homeostasis. So I think it's a fantastic
question and I think it's, it's really important for anyone to
consider, Hey, I jumped into this really good thing, exercise
and nutrition. How do I stop that from becoming
a bad thing? Right.
I mean, when you're in the, the act of addiction mindset or
mentality, your brain will tell you you're doing the best thing
(12:37):
possible for you. You're at the gym.
What could you possibly be righthere?
And then you're, you got yourself convinced that oh, I'm
good, this I'm healthy like whenI'm supposed to.
And then you realize you forgot to pick up your kids or that
your wife is mad at you for missing anniversary dinner.
These didn't happen to me, by the way.
I'm just using it. Someone you know who?
Yeah. Yeah.
Watch this. Right.
Like, hey, Jess, like you just went for a run and I had all
(12:59):
three kids for 35 minutes and, well, I'm doing that because
it's good for me and I need it, right?
You can be very quick to make excuses for what is like that.
It makes me a better husband. Yeah, it does.
Sure, but like, not at the cost of, you know.
Look, one in ten Americans todaystruggle with alcohol use
disorder and I was one of them. Did you know that there is a
(13:20):
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A doctor prescribed medication that you get online.
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(13:42):
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All right, so this next questionjumping into the church realm,
which I am very excited about, but this question is how have
(14:06):
you seen the church support or stigmatize those battling
addiction and what needs to change?
So I feel like depending on the person in the church that they
are attending, the answer is obviously going to be different.
I have seen, you know, the churches that I grew up going to
never say the word addiction versus, you know, the church
(14:26):
that I'm at now, it's talked about probably more than
anything, not anything, but it's, it's always being talked
about. You know, I decided to step out
of my comfort zone a few years ago at church and start leading
up a, a men's group specific to addiction recovery in men's
mental health. And dude, it was just so cool.
(14:48):
Just so cool to see so many men sitting around a table broken,
knowing how after we all are in the head, but that it doesn't
have to be the end and that we can be the best versions of our
self in that with his community and with God.
I've seen some mountains move, brother.
So I feel like again, it really it depends on the church.
(15:10):
And you know, I don't know if it's based off the age of the
pastors and everything, not thinking it's as big of a deal
as it actually is versus just just being achy and
uncomfortable. And they don't want to talk
about it. But like anything else in life,
once you start peeling back to those onions, that's where peace
and freedom is soon to be found.I wouldn't be here if it wasn't
for God. And like, I literally owe
(15:31):
everything to them. And the day that I think I don't
is the day that Justin is gone. Like it's not possible in my
opinion, to stay sober without God.
And that is, you know, in the a,a world and the whole higher
power thing. I've always, I always struggled
with that when hearing people say that like they don't believe
(15:54):
in God or nature is their higherpower or a, a in general is
their higher power. And I'm like, I what do I really
want to say is I am so sad for you that you were missing out on
what life could be about and really how happy and free you
could be, but you refuse to put your ego aside and think that
you are the one in control of everything.
(16:15):
I feel like I'm talking to my younger self here.
Come on, give us the speech, yeah.
I think it needs to be a priority at every church and
should be, and if it is, make sure it stays there because
unfortunately this isn't going anywhere.
I'll answer the question this way.
So first just defining terms when I, when I read, how have
you seen the quote church? I think it's important to say,
(16:37):
well, what is, what is the church?
Because the church means different things.
There's different denominations,there's Catholicism, there's
Protestantism, Eastern Orthodox,all those things.
But I'm just going to answer it through the lens of like in
generalities, like the Protestant church, because
that's, you know, what I'm most familiar with.
And to answer the question, doesIT support or stigmatize?
So it's an either or I'm going to say it supports and I've
(16:58):
noticed just in the tennis yearsthat I've been a Christian that
you're starting to see more and more support more and more
speaking about preaching about addiction.
But I do think there are opportunities and I think there
are two to to kind of take it tothe next level 1 right away.
When I read the question, I wentto alcohol because the church,
especially the origins of a a inthe Catholic Church and now
(17:19):
Alcoholics Anonymous. I think alcohol was like the
first, I know it was the first real addiction that like the
church really started getting behind.
But I think it's important todayto focus on all of the
addictions. And that's not easy to do,
especially when you're preachingto minors and teenagers.
Like things like sex addiction, very hard to lean into that in
the setting of like a Sunday sermon.
But I think it's important. Technology addiction I think
(17:42):
needs to be something. And I've noticed some pastors
are starting to bring in distractions and technology.
But I think for the church to fully support its community
that's battled with addiction, it has to be all-encompassing.
So we need more focus on the other addictions that are out
there. And then this, this second, my
second kind of like critique andwhere I think it can improve.
It's hard to put word soup, but the way I'll try, it's like it
(18:04):
always feels like the language and the tone always feels like
defeated. It feels soft.
It it doesn't feel like it's encouraging and strengthening
and. It sounds like almost.
Yeah, it feels like let's go in this room over here and let's
all like over. There, you weirdo.
Yeah, right. But it I think, and I think
about like this too, like I've seen, you know, instances in a
(18:27):
Sunday where like someone will get up on the stage and the
pastor will acknowledge that they're battling with addiction.
I don't know that everybody in achurch body is like capable to
kind of handle that and interactwith that person and not
stigmatize them and not judge them.
Like you see him up there on thestage.
And then it's like for the rest of their time at that church, I
go, that's the guy with the addiction.
(18:47):
So I don't know what I'm trying to say, Justin, but it's like, I
feel like they're doing a great job with a good heart and
helping people. But I think the way that we talk
about it and how many different things we talk about, I think
that's where the improvements are.
I definitely don't think that addiction is stigmatized, at
least not in the churches that I've been a part of.
For sure. And the last thing last thing
I'll say on this is that if you belong to a church and you
(19:09):
currently feel like there's not enough addiction talk or support
communities, step out of your comfort zone.
You don't have to wait for the pastor to be the one to organize
a life group or community for recovery or man's mental health.
You be the change that you want to see.
Like recovery is all about getting outside of yourself.
And if you want to maintain thisshit, you better get used to
being uncomfortable because that's the only way that I've
(19:31):
learned to stay where I'm at right now is staying
uncomfortable. And I think too, as a dad to two
little girls, like it's up to usto be the ones to, you know,
help shape their, their viewpoints of all this stuff
with the church, with addiction,with everything.
Like it's up to us to, to break the generational curses.
Or, you know, there's a, the quote that says addiction ran in
(19:55):
my family until it ran into me. And that's my goal.
That is my goal, to end this shit now so my kids can live the
happiest, healthiest free life and not be a slave to a
substance. Yeah, that's good, man.
And I'm glad you just encourage people to say something, right?
Because whether you're a Christian or not, addiction
lives in the darkness and you cannot move away from it until
(20:15):
you put lightness on it. And that could be telling
somebody. You don't have to be a Christian
to go online. There's online meetings if it's
alcohol, but there's things you can do.
But if you are listening and youknow you're stuck in a cycle of
addiction, whether it's a churchor not, there are lots of
resources out there for you to move in a healthy direction
because your life is literally at stake.
That sounds dramatic, but it really is your legacy.
And you guys have questions on like what I did or how it worked
(20:37):
or how I approached it, Like please reach out, DM me.
I'm always happy to talk about everything.
So as you can tell, I have a lotto say.
Yeah. And this next one, it's a good
Segway similar type question. This is straightforward.
I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this quote.
Do you think Christians can responsibly drink alcohol or
should abstinence be the standard?
I'll go first on this one. Yes, they can drink alcohol.
(20:59):
I. Agree.
I know I said that boldly. And if you, if you try to unpack
the Bible, which is where all Christians should go for an
answer like that, it's, it's, there's no straightforward
answer, right? I mean, if you, if you kind of
comb through the Old Testament, you go through Ecclesiastes,
there's lots of verses around like drink and be merry, you
know, why toil under the sun, like there's all.
(21:19):
But then of course, we know we're supposed to go to the red
letters in the New Testament forthat guidance.
And wine is throughout the New Testament and different
examples, especially at parties and festivities.
I mean, Jesus literally turned water into wine.
But then there's actual there's actual verses that speak to the
importance of temperance and also abstinence.
(21:40):
Again, temperance being moderation in all things, not
just alcohol. And then you can even go and
find verses that would strongly hint, if not state that, you
know, alcohol doesn't have a place in our lives.
But where I land then, and I want to hear what you have to
say this, but they can drink. They do drink.
Some of them should drink, some of them should not.
But I don't think that's unique to Christians.
(22:00):
I think that's just humans. World yeah no, I very aligned
with you there 100% and like, can Christians responsibly drink
alcohol? Yes.
Should abstinence be the standard?
In my opinion, no. You know my addiction is no one
else's problem or fault on my own.
So the second that I say I don'tdrink, so you can't, I got
another problem that I have to work through.
(22:21):
Clearly, I think that, you know,the blanket statements are
tough. You know, like the, no, you're
Christian, you can't drink like,because in some people's minds,
I'm sure that is their, their standpoint and like how they
view it. And you know, for me, I can't
drink one like for many reasons,obviously.
But yes, Christian should be able to drink responsibly, but
(22:44):
abstinence should be the standard if you have a problem
or you are finding yourself clinging to alcohol as a as a
crotch rather than one or two a week out at a social gathering
type of thing, you know? Yeah, agree.
It's like, I think the reason you don't drink, Justin, and the
reason anyone that doesn't drink.
I I think the reasons are biblical in nature, right?
(23:05):
Like we want to be responsible. We want to take care of our
bodies, our vessels, if they're,you know, we want to love
ourselves and love others. And if a substance or addiction
is preventing you from do that out of principle, you should not
do that thing. And that I think that is
biblical, but I haven't seen andI'm sure this person might send
me a verse or two, but I haven'tseen a black and white Bible
(23:28):
verse that is just so clear thatcould just make, you know,
billions of people stop drinkingtomorrow because it's in the
Bible, right? So I don't know, maybe that's
another episode on to itself. It certainly feels like it could
be for sure. I agree.
I agree. All right, jumping into the next
question here. We're going to get into some
(23:49):
neuroscience stuff, Jess. Specialty.
Yes, this question is what does the current neuroscience say
about how alcohol effects long term brain health and decision
making? Can you say neuroscience for me?
Neuroscience. How do you normally say what?
Did I say the first time? It was like like neuroscience,
(24:09):
what does current neuroscience say about OK, so long term is
the key here, right. Specifically this question looks
like brain health and decision making, which is an interesting
specificity, but I think you gotsomething pulled up Justin, we
can kind of site. I do, so I have a couple sources
pulled up right now being neurosciencenews.com, Pub Med
and APSU health site. So I wonder if that's a Penn
(24:34):
State, but a lot of really, really interesting call outs
here. So let's start with drinking
levels. So let's say this person is a
moderate drinker, which is currently classified as 7 to 8
drinks a week. What are the brain effects of
that, if any? There are a 60% increase in
(24:55):
vascular lesions with moderate drinking and also a 60% increase
in brain atrophy. What does that mean?
Decision making impacts. You now have impaired impulse
control and memory. So yes, even moderate drinking
does. Now let's get into some of the
other categories. So heavy drinking is classified
as 8 drinks or more a week. What does that do for the brain
(25:16):
effects? Those same lesions we talked
about with moderate drinking nowincrease from 60 to 135%.
You now have a decrease in brainmass and another thing that I've
never heard of before, but I'm excited to look it up.
It's called Tau tangles. Tau tangles.
It's not something it sounds like you want, but you're going
to get it. I.
Don't want lesions, atrophy or Tau tangles.
(25:38):
That's for. Sure, no Tau tangles.
And then for decision making impacts outside of impaired
impulse control and memory issues.
You were going now have blunted emotional feedback and your
erratic decision making is goingto significantly increase
adolescents binge drinking. Oh shit, don't.
Tell us, I mean some of these it's in my opinion no brainers,
(26:00):
it's disrupted development of the brain, especially the
frontal cortex and that's significant decrease in
executive function which will result in the decision making
impacts of long term impulsivityand risk taking.
Sounds familiar? I wonder why?
Sure does. Thank you Jersey Shore and Irish
Catholic heritage, but go ahead.And then the last one is labeled
(26:22):
as chronic misuse, which doesn'thave a drinking level associated
with it, but I'm assuming that means years of heavy drinking,
which means brain effects, significant increase in
inflammation, your blood barrier, the damage to your
blood brain barrier, and possible WKS.
So I have two things for homework.
(26:42):
I need to look up what WKS and towel tangles are but I don't
want either of them. And then decision making
impacts. Severe cognitive deficits,
severe addiction cycles. So OK.
OK, so bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. It sounds sounds like 8 is the
current kind of like thresholds for moderate drinking to
(27:04):
obsessive drinking. So that's one kind of take away
and then the other take away. Just reading.
Yeah. So you're hurting yourself long
term. And I have, I mean I've not does
this anything about reversible irreversible?
Yeah, it does. So getting into that abstinence
is listed here as greater than 7plus months of not drinking.
(27:24):
And it says I'll and I'll read some of the actual data from the
section here. But it says there's structural
recovery in some regions and cognitive recovery is possible,
but depends on variables. So what does that mean?
So. It probably age, lifestyle,
overall health, probably things like that I'm assuming.
And dude, that was just the brain that anything.
(27:44):
About heart. About.
Bladder, liver and overall health.
Yeah. And I just want to throw one
thing out there sometimes. Always stuck with me and I try
to take every opportunity to talk about it.
But the hedonic set point, Justin, I think we talked about
this in the past, but we are as humans, we have this thing
called the hedonic set point, which is basically the threshold
of when we can receive an experience dopamine.
(28:06):
And dopamine comes from all over.
It comes from the natural world.It comes from love, affection,
sunrises, visual cues that we take in and in in active
drinking. If you're kind of beyond that
eight a week, probably you know what happens is when alcohol
floods our brain with dopamine, this thing called a hedonic set
point, which is basically our ability to interpret and
(28:27):
experience dopamine moves and shifts so that alcohol can and
often time does become the only like intense joy that we can
experience. And in order to just kind of
experience life and have a like good life and feel joy, you have
to have abstinence because your brain has to reset that hedonic
set point. You can look that up.
(28:48):
I'll even link to it in the description.
But for me, the reason I bring that up is when I was kind of
going through my first period ofabstinence, when I learned how
my brain was changing because ofalcohol, like objectively
learned and then tied that to mysubjective experience.
Like, oh, that's why when I go for a walk around the block, I
don't feel anything anymore. Or that's why I'm urgent or
stressed or anxious or not as patient with my children.
(29:10):
Because your friggin brain is changing because you're flooding
with alcohol. And what do you think is going
to happen? So bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
So if you're drinking too much, I think abstinence, or a period
of abstinence at least, would bewould be.
Well advised just to experience like to show yourself like what
it's going to feel like, becauseI think you're going to surprise
yourself with just the, the, theclarity and yeah, just try it
(29:33):
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(30:14):
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All right, last question for this episode.
I'm going to read it word for word because I think it's
awesome. And this is from Joe in
Pennsylvania. We know Joey.
(30:35):
Joey Bocci. What's up, Joey, where is that
question? I wrote the whole thing down
because I loved it. Shoot.
The last one. Where'd it go?
The last one. You want to read it, buddy?
Yeah, read the first. Read the first.
Letter from Joe How can I becomeas swollen good looking as the
two of you? Seriously, how do you balance
(30:55):
growing children, advancing careers, socializing marriages
without becoming so overwhelmed that you fall back into bad
habits? I can barely keep the plate
spinning as it is and for sure can't find time to work out in
there. Yeah.
And this, this is another one, probably the third question this
episode that can be its own episode, right?
I mean, how do you balance everything, right?
And I think when I read this, I was thinking like you have your,
(31:15):
you have your pillars, you have your things that are important,
you have your family, you have your overall health.
And then you have like training that's kind of out here.
And we talk a lot about training.
And I think the challenge for somany guys and gals out there is
like, how do I commit to and stay consistent with like my
physical health and my emotionalhealth when I've just got no
margin and I've got all these other you're on the hamster
(31:35):
wheel every single day. I, I don't think Joe's question
needs a paraphrasing, but that'show I I know.
And. I feel like it's a question that
gets asked by, I mean, a lot of people in, in our in our world,
Like how, how can one person be able to effectively bounce all
this and still make it a priority at the same time?
And I don't think there's a one answer to this question.
I know I feel like a lot of where I'm at now is coming from
(31:57):
trial and error and just seeing what works and what doesn't.
But some of the things that I had to understand in order to
fit all the things in the day that I wanted to is that there's
going to be, if I want to do this, I'm going to have to make
sacrifices because and their sacrifices, unfortunately, in
some sense, instances can be bigger things that you don't
(32:18):
want, which is why you have to be smart about, you know, how
you're going to structure your day and not just wake up and
say, OK, we'll see what the day brings and hope for the best.
So that's why, you know, I've heard about two or three years
straight. And Jess, I know you remember
this too. Like I had my alarm set for like
3:45 in the morning to get to the gym at 4 when it opened.
And I would get like an hour anda half or two hour workout in
(32:39):
before my wife or kids are even awake.
So I know a lot it's it's very easy to say you don't have time
and and some days you're just not going to have time and I get
that. But if it's important to you,
you'll make the time, whether itis, you know, rather than doom
scrolling between work calls for10 minutes, bang out 50 push ups
and 50 sit ups between every call.
(33:00):
It doesn't have to be a 45 minute to an hour at the gym in
order to get a workout. Doesn't have to be perfect.
No, it's 10 pull ups, 50 air squats are better than nothing,
you know, so there's always waysto fit in throughout the day.
You know, I was just listening to a podcast that talks about 5
minute workouts throughout the day and how there's science that
(33:20):
backs that being just as, if notmaybe more beneficial than a
straight 45 minute, 60 minute workout.
So it doesn't have to be, you know, I got to go.
I can't get to my CrossFit classbecause I had to pick up my
kids. Like you can find not fine, but
you'd be lucky if you did. But get resistance bands and
work out from home. Like there's nothing stopping
(33:42):
you from moving your body but you.
And I think the the sooner that we understand that, like, OK, I
can't say that I don't have any more time anymore, then we can
start actually plugging away at what needs to change and what
can we move or sacrifice. Whether it is 30 minutes of
sleep and waking up early and, you know, going for a job, going
(34:02):
for a run, working, lifting, it doesn't have to be perfect.
And I know social media and every single fitness influencer
makes it look like that, but we live in real life, guys, not the
highlight reel. So be kind to yourselves, start
slow and see how you can, you know, incorporate time into your
day, whether it is, again, waking up early and going to the
gym, or you can do it at night too, when the kids are asleep.
(34:25):
Like, I know that's Netflix timeand lifetime, but maybe it's not
every day. It's one to two days to start
and then you you pivot from there.
But there's ways to sneak it in.And if you're prepared, though
it can definitely be hard. I will say that.
Yeah. So message, there is progress
over perfection. We all know that.
(34:46):
Yeah, I'm going to get super specific and tactical and just
kind of share exactly what I did.
Time blocks, time blocks, I think most people know what that
is, but going go into your calendar and physically block
out time. That's kind of the foundation
here. And time like block out things
you are going to do, but perhapsmore importantly times when
you're not going to do anything.And my exact time block looks
(35:09):
like this. So work week Monday through
Friday, I block out five to 6:30every single Monday through
Friday, actually, and and Saturday.
And I literally call that Jesse time.
And typically that means wake up, Rev up, whatever your
morning routine is. That could be coffee in the
Bible. That could be just stare out the
window and and you know, say my life sucks, whatever, whatever
it is, but whatever you whateveryou need, right?
(35:31):
But physical training is in there and it's 5 to 630.
Now, granted, not everybody can do these things.
If you have a three month old child and they have an
unpredictable sleep schedule, I get it.
If you travel a lot, I get it, but I'm talking idealistically
here. 5:00 to 6:30 Monday through Saturday is Jesse time
of which is wake up, coffee, quiet time, workout, shower.
That's an hour and a half. That's all you need, right?
(35:53):
And then I literally block out the next one which is family
time, which is pre work and I block it out and that I don't
put anything in there, but I'm just telling myself you are to
be present with your family. And then the next block is work
time, whatever that looks like for y'all, right?
But you block it out. And then at the end of that,
there's an hour at the very end before I transition from work to
(36:15):
family, which is Jesse time again.
Now that can fill up with more work if that makes me feel
comfortable and in control. But it can be anything I want it
to be. And just having that space and
freedom at the end of the day gives me that extra margin.
So I've got the block in the morning, I've got the block and
I'll call like the early evening.
And then the next block, you know exactly what it is.
It's family time again, right? And then this next one's huge
(36:36):
Sunday completely blocked nothing.
It's supposed to be a Sabbath. Does stuff creep into there?
Like if I didn't mow the lawn because it rained on Saturday,
now I'm mowing it on Sunday fine.
Because I think the last piece outside of blocking things and
trying to stick to them is also don't hold so tight to the
blocks that it stresses you the hell out.
Because the whole, the whole point is not to be stressed, but
it's just a system that you can use to know that you have that
(36:58):
protected space. But then you have to be
disciplined and use the space for what it was intended for.
But that's a super tactical, I think Justin hit very like
really eloquently on like the high level perspective that you
have to take destruction your day.
And then me personally, I've been living off of time blocks
for like 15 years. It's served me very well.
Do they get out of whack sometimes when life gets crazy?
(37:19):
Yes. But you have to let go of that
and then return to it as soon asyou can.
So that's just a little practical take away from my view
that. Was very, very well worded and
very practical as well. Thank you.
You gonna try it? I actually do use calendar
blocks as well, only I have like8 to 930 blocked off every
morning because, well, not now because it's summer, but that
(37:39):
was kids school drop off a little before 8:00 and then
lifetime. It's a breakdown the road from
the kids school. So listen, I would stop at the
gym there for an hour before ourday starts.
And obviously some days we have earlier calls where we can't do
that. And you know, it's not the end
of the world, but we can move things around or flexible with
our workouts, get something doneat home.
But to your point, Jess, I thinkwhat you said is insanely
(38:01):
important. And and one of the main
takeaways that I took from what you just said is be proactive
with your time and or that you are being selfish with your time
when it allows to work on you, whatever that looks like,
whether that's journaling, meditating, working on your dark
side, whatever it may be. But having that time set aside
for you, whether you know what you're going to do with that
(38:23):
that day or not heading into it like it's very important.
I think so. I love that, Jess.
All right, everybody love these Ask us anythings.
Remember, they're at the end of every single month.
So we'll reach out. We'd love to hear your
questions. As I said in the beginning of
the episode, you can come to ourwebsite and drop your questions
off or if you want to be on the guest, another ask if you would,
if you enjoyed this show or you think someone else could benefit
from it, please follow us. You can follow us and find us
(38:45):
wherever podcasts are, and that includes Apple Music, Spotify,
all the places, YouTube, if you want.
We have awesome content that we put out on our social media
channels. So please find us and follow us
there. Share this show with anyone that
you think get some benefit from it.
And as always, we're so gratefulthat you joined us here on the
Running Free podcast. We'll see you next time.
Thanks for joining.
Can intense exercise or clean eating become a substitute
addiction for those in recovery?The gym is usually one of the
first things that people in recovery, I feel like cling to.
But like anything else, you worship that.
That becomes your new alcohol, man.
That becomes all you think about, all you prioritize above
anything else. So where it can be a beautiful,
(00:21):
beautiful place and a beautiful outlet and just the most healthy
thing possible, Too much of anything, as we all know, can be
our downturn. All right, welcome to Running
(00:47):
Free. I'm your host Jesse Carriage.
I'm here with my Co host Justin Mazars.
What's up, Justin? Happy Monday friends, how we
doing? Happy, but they don't know.
We're recording on a Monday. Happy day.
Happy day. Oh, happy day.
Speaking of happy day, dude, this is volume two of our
variety pack. It's our version of Ask Us
Anything. We ask our audience, our amazing
audience. Like what do you want to know?
(01:08):
Right? And it could be silly, it could
be funny, it can be deep, it could be science based, fitness,
anything and everything in between.
Justin and I just kind of feel them.
And then I'll say this, we intentionally do not over
prepare for this episode. So we have the questions.
We're going to dive into it. So I'll I'll just kind of say
the first question, Justin and then we'll just dive into it.
I'm really excited to see where this goes.
(01:30):
So the first question comes fromMatt in Dallas, TX.
Shout out to Matt in Dallas. Here's his question.
So it has to do with P. Love Matt already.
Yeah. All right.
So Matt's question is, what's the weirdest color a vitamin or
supplement has turned your urine, and do you adjust your
supplement intake based on that color?
(01:54):
Unfortunately, there's a lot of validity to the the statement of
supplements changing your urine color.
And yeah, finding that out for the first time was an experience
I remember. I specifically remember exactly
what supplement it was. It was GN CS Mega Men Sport
Multivitamins, and I started taking them and I was like, all
(02:14):
these great, like we're going back like 15 years here.
And then I remember obviously peeing and being like, uh oh,
what is that? Why does it look like that?
It's like orange and not what itshould be and it smells weird.
Was there something like when you take those big like
all-encompassing like multivitamins, there's so much
stuff in it. Do you know what it was that was
messing with your pee or was it just too much?
(02:34):
But if you look up or go online and look up any kind of comments
or research on GNC's Mega Man's More Sport Multivitamin, a lot
of people, I'll have some funky peep from it too.
So I'm not I'm not alone. You're not alone.
I've got no, you know, I've got no experience with urine.
It's probably because I don't pay attention.
Like literally when I'm peeing I'm just kind of like
daydreaming because it's probably the only like quiet
(02:55):
moment I have of my day. I hope you have good aim.
Yeah, I hopefully have good aim my wife would tell me but I no
dude I got. I will say this though, I've
I've never experienced like I'venever like actually went to
urinate and I take supplements and and like noticed anything
problematic. However, I am aware that there
are some supplements that can change the color.
(03:16):
I only pay attention to hydration levels like that to me
is it's anonymous with, with, with urine color.
And, and I'll just add that I dothink, you know, be cautious
whenever you take a multivitaminand make sure you're not just
covering all of your bases and in so doing taking a whole bunch
of crap that you don't need. So I don't take a multivitamin
personally. I try to get all of my vitamins
(03:38):
and minerals and nutrients from my diet.
And then I supplement my diet with supplements.
And that's where we've talked before.
Fish oil, creatine for both it'sa nootropic and for performance.
I mean, I can go on whey proteinand there's some other things
that I take that are specific tome, especially around like
stress management. But for me, like if you're, if
you're taking a lot of shit and you're peeing weird, like it's
(03:58):
probably what you're taking. But my, my caution there is
basically just like don't, don'tover supplement.
Try to get this most you can from your vitamins and excuse
me, from your diet. You know, it's super easy to
just assume you're covering every base by just taking one
pill a day, but you got to understand exactly what's in it,
what the daily value percentage is as well of each.
(04:19):
I started recently taking universal animal pack for multi,
but mostly because there's a lotof like nootropics and
adaptogens and like mushroom complex and stuff in it.
So it is unfortunately 16 pills,but it's, it's been, it's been
nice, I think. But to your point, I mean, it's
another tool in the tool belt that shouldn't be where we're
putting all of our, our money. And you, like you said, just
(04:41):
whole food is where we should begetting the majority of all of
our, you know, micros and macros.
Agreed, Matt also said. By the way, I didn't read this
part but he goes quote it feels like I'm dumping A Piggy Bank
into the toilet bowl. Matt, we got to talk, bud, what
are you taking? Yeah, maybe we could follow up
with him. All right, Cool man.
You want to take the next one. Sure, peptides.
(05:03):
Another hot up and coming topic that I was very excited to see
on the list. So the question is, are either
of you currently on any peptide therapy regimens so?
No, you go. No for Jesse right now for me is
a no as well. I will say that I have tried a
few over the last five years or so, specifically TB 500 and BPC
(05:27):
157, which I feel like are two of the pretty common ones in our
bodybuilding nutrition workout world.
They're injections meant to be, you know, helping repair
ligaments, tendons, all things joint damage, muscle damage.
So I dabbled with that with numerous injuries over the years
(05:47):
for my shoulder, my elbow and myback.
There's oral forms as well, but getting them is not the easiest
right now, obviously, because it's a very Gray area.
I know RFK was talking about potentially bringing these to
life more and making peptides like the new as normal as the
medicine that we see today, which I would love to see.
(06:09):
But I think there's a lot of research that still needs to be
done on a lot of these. But the research that is already
out there with many clinical studies and and data to prove
especially on TV 500 and BPC 157.
Sounds like a like a nemesis in the Terminator.
Body protective compound is whatthe BPC stands for.
(06:30):
And I would encourage anybody to, to research it and see, you
know, if that could be somethingthat you're looking, if you're
asking because you're interestedin and potentially, you know,
not dabbling, but you know, bringing that into your
supplement sack, like please do research and reach out.
We're always happy to answer anyquestions.
But I'm a big fan of them and I hope to see a lot more of them
(06:52):
coming up with, you know, minimal side effects and a lot
of data and research to to support.
Yeah, that question was from AJ in South Carolina, and he
actually lists out what he's taking.
And when I started, when I started reading it, I was just
like my brain just shut off. It's CJC 1295.
I'll try to say these words. IPA moralin.
This next one sounds like a sorcerer from like the Lord of
(07:14):
the Rings, he said. I think it is after training I
take Ghana Doralin. Is that like?
CDI thought you weren't supposed.
To he says he takes that for testosterone production.
Yeah, gun in my head right now, Jesse sounds smart.
And answer the question, what isa peptide?
And I'm dead. So I'd I'm not there yet.
I'm typically a late adopter when it comes to some of these
things. But if you're doing it and AJ
(07:36):
here is doing it, then I'm, I'm curious, I'll say that.
Who would you describe, Justin? I'm just curious like who do you
think peptides are right for? Peptides I feel like are right
for people who have tried many other modalities in order to
help with pain management or depending on what the peptide is
like testosterone production. You're have hyper gonadism like
(07:56):
your yours truly over here. You know, that could be an Ave.
to explore and see prior to going on, you know, full out
TRT. But like for the inflammation,
the pain, the the ligament and tissue repair and reproduction,
like doesn't have to be a significant injury, but an
injury that's been there for a while and doesn't seem to be
getting better with physical therapy and, you know, managing
(08:16):
with mobility exercises and really trying to cover all your
bases like the multivitamin and like everything else, it's just
another tool. It's not something that I would
put all of my faith in as this is going to change my world.
All right, there you have it. This question comes from Rand in
New Mexico. Great question.
By the way, this could This could probably be an episode
(08:37):
unto. Itself.
It's a great question. So can intense exercise or clean
eating or maybe and or clean eating become a substitute
addiction for those in recovery?My words, not his, but basically
like if you replace or if you get healthier with fitness, can
that itself become its own addiction?
(08:58):
Why don't you take this one first?
Yeah, again, Ran, great questionman.
And this is something that I feel like I have seen first
hand, especially in the recoveryspace.
Whereas with anything else, you know, you're, you're looking for
outlets, you're looking for avenues to to help with
everything that you're going through.
The gym is usually one of the first things that people in
recovery, I feel like cling to many reasons, not just for the
(09:21):
indoor friends, but a lot of us are angry.
A great, great outlet to continue to let that out in a
healthy way. But like anything else, you
worship that. That becomes your new alcohol,
man. That becomes all you think
about, all you prioritize above anything else.
If you don't get to the gym in aday or something comes up and
prevents it from happening, and I'm speaking from my own
experience here, It will fuckingruin your entire day and you
(09:44):
will be miserable from it. So where it can be a beautiful,
beautiful place and a beautiful outlet and just the most healthy
thing possible. Too much of anything, as we all
know it can be our downfall. So while having that the gym as
you're high up on your totem pole of, you know, outlets and
(10:05):
you know, things to help with all the thoughts that all of us
in recovery deal with, it's fine.
Like having it up the top is great, but I would not make that
the your God because if you do, you're going to be disappointed
down the road quickly and it's going to.
Agreed. Agreed.
I'm going to I'm going to detachthe two and then just hit him
quickly on their own because it was exercise and clean eating.
I'll just call that nutrition. I think this the the simplest
(10:28):
straightforward response to the eating part is 100% that can
become an addiction really fast.I mean, it is an actual
addiction that people talk aboutfood addiction.
But if you're so hyper focused and obsessive and neurotic about
counting calories and macros andthen that translates over to
check in your how you look in the mirror and the scale, you're
(10:50):
quickly developing this like number base compulsion.
And I think that can go off the rails really quick.
So I think with eating, and especially because we always
have to eat and we always have to make these decisions like
throughout the day, every day ongoing for the rest of our
lives, I think that can become an addiction super fast. 100%.
Exercise I I don't want to repeat anything you said,
(11:11):
especially around like if I don't work out, how do I feel
because it's not good grumpy as my kids would say.
But one thing when I was thinking about this question
before this episode, one thing that jumped out to me was like
some of the classic indicators of addiction is that your
addiction is disabling you from like taking care of
responsibilities. It's impacting your work, it's
(11:32):
impacting your relationships. You're investing time here with
consequences that are hurting all of these things over here
that matter. So when I look at a specifically
through like the classic definition of an addiction,
training can become an addictionreally quick.
And anecdotally, I, I can recalltimes where like, you know, you
have like this crammed day and you have all of your
responsibilities that you have to take care of, including your
(11:52):
family and your work and your training and everything else.
And I can recall times when I made decisions to train when it
caused friction either in my marriage or with work.
And then I had to like, stress to catch up or repair those
things. And that is because at times I
can have an unhealthy relationship with my fitness
because I'm relying on it so much to get that equilibrium and
(12:16):
that mental health, which I should be able to achieve as
homeostasis. So I think it's a fantastic
question and I think it's, it's really important for anyone to
consider, Hey, I jumped into this really good thing, exercise
and nutrition. How do I stop that from becoming
a bad thing? Right.
I mean, when you're in the, the act of addiction mindset or
mentality, your brain will tell you you're doing the best thing
(12:37):
possible for you. You're at the gym.
What could you possibly be righthere?
And then you're, you got yourself convinced that oh, I'm
good, this I'm healthy like whenI'm supposed to.
And then you realize you forgot to pick up your kids or that
your wife is mad at you for missing anniversary dinner.
These didn't happen to me, by the way.
I'm just using it. Someone you know who?
Yeah. Yeah.
Watch this. Right.
Like, hey, Jess, like you just went for a run and I had all
(12:59):
three kids for 35 minutes and, well, I'm doing that because
it's good for me and I need it, right?
You can be very quick to make excuses for what is like that.
It makes me a better husband. Yeah, it does.
Sure, but like, not at the cost of, you know.
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(13:20):
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All right, so this next questionjumping into the church realm,
which I am very excited about, but this question is how have
(14:06):
you seen the church support or stigmatize those battling
addiction and what needs to change?
So I feel like depending on the person in the church that they
are attending, the answer is obviously going to be different.
I have seen, you know, the churches that I grew up going to
never say the word addiction versus, you know, the church
(14:26):
that I'm at now, it's talked about probably more than
anything, not anything, but it's, it's always being talked
about. You know, I decided to step out
of my comfort zone a few years ago at church and start leading
up a, a men's group specific to addiction recovery in men's
mental health. And dude, it was just so cool.
(14:48):
Just so cool to see so many men sitting around a table broken,
knowing how after we all are in the head, but that it doesn't
have to be the end and that we can be the best versions of our
self in that with his community and with God.
I've seen some mountains move, brother.
So I feel like again, it really it depends on the church.
(15:10):
And you know, I don't know if it's based off the age of the
pastors and everything, not thinking it's as big of a deal
as it actually is versus just just being achy and
uncomfortable. And they don't want to talk
about it. But like anything else in life,
once you start peeling back to those onions, that's where peace
and freedom is soon to be found.I wouldn't be here if it wasn't
for God. And like, I literally owe
(15:31):
everything to them. And the day that I think I don't
is the day that Justin is gone. Like it's not possible in my
opinion, to stay sober without God.
And that is, you know, in the a,a world and the whole higher
power thing. I've always, I always struggled
with that when hearing people say that like they don't believe
(15:54):
in God or nature is their higherpower or a, a in general is
their higher power. And I'm like, I what do I really
want to say is I am so sad for you that you were missing out on
what life could be about and really how happy and free you
could be, but you refuse to put your ego aside and think that
you are the one in control of everything.
(16:15):
I feel like I'm talking to my younger self here.
Come on, give us the speech, yeah.
I think it needs to be a priority at every church and
should be, and if it is, make sure it stays there because
unfortunately this isn't going anywhere.
I'll answer the question this way.
So first just defining terms when I, when I read, how have
you seen the quote church? I think it's important to say,
(16:37):
well, what is, what is the church?
Because the church means different things.
There's different denominations,there's Catholicism, there's
Protestantism, Eastern Orthodox,all those things.
But I'm just going to answer it through the lens of like in
generalities, like the Protestant church, because
that's, you know, what I'm most familiar with.
And to answer the question, doesIT support or stigmatize?
So it's an either or I'm going to say it supports and I've
(16:58):
noticed just in the tennis yearsthat I've been a Christian that
you're starting to see more and more support more and more
speaking about preaching about addiction.
But I do think there are opportunities and I think there
are two to to kind of take it tothe next level 1 right away.
When I read the question, I wentto alcohol because the church,
especially the origins of a a inthe Catholic Church and now
(17:19):
Alcoholics Anonymous. I think alcohol was like the
first, I know it was the first real addiction that like the
church really started getting behind.
But I think it's important todayto focus on all of the
addictions. And that's not easy to do,
especially when you're preachingto minors and teenagers.
Like things like sex addiction, very hard to lean into that in
the setting of like a Sunday sermon.
But I think it's important. Technology addiction I think
(17:42):
needs to be something. And I've noticed some pastors
are starting to bring in distractions and technology.
But I think for the church to fully support its community
that's battled with addiction, it has to be all-encompassing.
So we need more focus on the other addictions that are out
there. And then this, this second, my
second kind of like critique andwhere I think it can improve.
It's hard to put word soup, but the way I'll try, it's like it
(18:04):
always feels like the language and the tone always feels like
defeated. It feels soft.
It it doesn't feel like it's encouraging and strengthening
and. It sounds like almost.
Yeah, it feels like let's go in this room over here and let's
all like over. There, you weirdo.
Yeah, right. But it I think, and I think
about like this too, like I've seen, you know, instances in a
(18:27):
Sunday where like someone will get up on the stage and the
pastor will acknowledge that they're battling with addiction.
I don't know that everybody in achurch body is like capable to
kind of handle that and interactwith that person and not
stigmatize them and not judge them.
Like you see him up there on thestage.
And then it's like for the rest of their time at that church, I
go, that's the guy with the addiction.
(18:47):
So I don't know what I'm trying to say, Justin, but it's like, I
feel like they're doing a great job with a good heart and
helping people. But I think the way that we talk
about it and how many different things we talk about, I think
that's where the improvements are.
I definitely don't think that addiction is stigmatized, at
least not in the churches that I've been a part of.
For sure. And the last thing last thing
I'll say on this is that if you belong to a church and you
(19:09):
currently feel like there's not enough addiction talk or support
communities, step out of your comfort zone.
You don't have to wait for the pastor to be the one to organize
a life group or community for recovery or man's mental health.
You be the change that you want to see.
Like recovery is all about getting outside of yourself.
And if you want to maintain thisshit, you better get used to
being uncomfortable because that's the only way that I've
(19:31):
learned to stay where I'm at right now is staying
uncomfortable. And I think too, as a dad to two
little girls, like it's up to usto be the ones to, you know,
help shape their, their viewpoints of all this stuff
with the church, with addiction,with everything.
Like it's up to us to, to break the generational curses.
Or, you know, there's a, the quote that says addiction ran in
(19:55):
my family until it ran into me. And that's my goal.
That is my goal, to end this shit now so my kids can live the
happiest, healthiest free life and not be a slave to a
substance. Yeah, that's good, man.
And I'm glad you just encourage people to say something, right?
Because whether you're a Christian or not, addiction
lives in the darkness and you cannot move away from it until
(20:15):
you put lightness on it. And that could be telling
somebody. You don't have to be a Christian
to go online. There's online meetings if it's
alcohol, but there's things you can do.
But if you are listening and youknow you're stuck in a cycle of
addiction, whether it's a churchor not, there are lots of
resources out there for you to move in a healthy direction
because your life is literally at stake.
That sounds dramatic, but it really is your legacy.
And you guys have questions on like what I did or how it worked
(20:37):
or how I approached it, Like please reach out, DM me.
I'm always happy to talk about everything.
So as you can tell, I have a lotto say.
Yeah. And this next one, it's a good
Segway similar type question. This is straightforward.
I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this quote.
Do you think Christians can responsibly drink alcohol or
should abstinence be the standard?
I'll go first on this one. Yes, they can drink alcohol.
(20:59):
I. Agree.
I know I said that boldly. And if you, if you try to unpack
the Bible, which is where all Christians should go for an
answer like that, it's, it's, there's no straightforward
answer, right? I mean, if you, if you kind of
comb through the Old Testament, you go through Ecclesiastes,
there's lots of verses around like drink and be merry, you
know, why toil under the sun, like there's all.
(21:19):
But then of course, we know we're supposed to go to the red
letters in the New Testament forthat guidance.
And wine is throughout the New Testament and different
examples, especially at parties and festivities.
I mean, Jesus literally turned water into wine.
But then there's actual there's actual verses that speak to the
importance of temperance and also abstinence.
(21:40):
Again, temperance being moderation in all things, not
just alcohol. And then you can even go and
find verses that would strongly hint, if not state that, you
know, alcohol doesn't have a place in our lives.
But where I land then, and I want to hear what you have to
say this, but they can drink. They do drink.
Some of them should drink, some of them should not.
But I don't think that's unique to Christians.
(22:00):
I think that's just humans. World yeah no, I very aligned
with you there 100% and like, can Christians responsibly drink
alcohol? Yes.
Should abstinence be the standard?
In my opinion, no. You know my addiction is no one
else's problem or fault on my own.
So the second that I say I don'tdrink, so you can't, I got
another problem that I have to work through.
(22:21):
Clearly, I think that, you know,the blanket statements are
tough. You know, like the, no, you're
Christian, you can't drink like,because in some people's minds,
I'm sure that is their, their standpoint and like how they
view it. And you know, for me, I can't
drink one like for many reasons,obviously.
But yes, Christian should be able to drink responsibly, but
(22:44):
abstinence should be the standard if you have a problem
or you are finding yourself clinging to alcohol as a as a
crotch rather than one or two a week out at a social gathering
type of thing, you know? Yeah, agree.
It's like, I think the reason you don't drink, Justin, and the
reason anyone that doesn't drink.
I I think the reasons are biblical in nature, right?
(23:05):
Like we want to be responsible. We want to take care of our
bodies, our vessels, if they're,you know, we want to love
ourselves and love others. And if a substance or addiction
is preventing you from do that out of principle, you should not
do that thing. And that I think that is
biblical, but I haven't seen andI'm sure this person might send
me a verse or two, but I haven'tseen a black and white Bible
(23:28):
verse that is just so clear thatcould just make, you know,
billions of people stop drinkingtomorrow because it's in the
Bible, right? So I don't know, maybe that's
another episode on to itself. It certainly feels like it could
be for sure. I agree.
I agree. All right, jumping into the next
question here. We're going to get into some
(23:49):
neuroscience stuff, Jess. Specialty.
Yes, this question is what does the current neuroscience say
about how alcohol effects long term brain health and decision
making? Can you say neuroscience for me?
Neuroscience. How do you normally say what?
Did I say the first time? It was like like neuroscience,
(24:09):
what does current neuroscience say about OK, so long term is
the key here, right. Specifically this question looks
like brain health and decision making, which is an interesting
specificity, but I think you gotsomething pulled up Justin, we
can kind of site. I do, so I have a couple sources
pulled up right now being neurosciencenews.com, Pub Med
and APSU health site. So I wonder if that's a Penn
(24:34):
State, but a lot of really, really interesting call outs
here. So let's start with drinking
levels. So let's say this person is a
moderate drinker, which is currently classified as 7 to 8
drinks a week. What are the brain effects of
that, if any? There are a 60% increase in
(24:55):
vascular lesions with moderate drinking and also a 60% increase
in brain atrophy. What does that mean?
Decision making impacts. You now have impaired impulse
control and memory. So yes, even moderate drinking
does. Now let's get into some of the
other categories. So heavy drinking is classified
as 8 drinks or more a week. What does that do for the brain
(25:16):
effects? Those same lesions we talked
about with moderate drinking nowincrease from 60 to 135%.
You now have a decrease in brainmass and another thing that I've
never heard of before, but I'm excited to look it up.
It's called Tau tangles. Tau tangles.
It's not something it sounds like you want, but you're going
to get it. I.
Don't want lesions, atrophy or Tau tangles.
(25:38):
That's for. Sure, no Tau tangles.
And then for decision making impacts outside of impaired
impulse control and memory issues.
You were going now have blunted emotional feedback and your
erratic decision making is goingto significantly increase
adolescents binge drinking. Oh shit, don't.
Tell us, I mean some of these it's in my opinion no brainers,
(26:00):
it's disrupted development of the brain, especially the
frontal cortex and that's significant decrease in
executive function which will result in the decision making
impacts of long term impulsivityand risk taking.
Sounds familiar? I wonder why?
Sure does. Thank you Jersey Shore and Irish
Catholic heritage, but go ahead.And then the last one is labeled
(26:22):
as chronic misuse, which doesn'thave a drinking level associated
with it, but I'm assuming that means years of heavy drinking,
which means brain effects, significant increase in
inflammation, your blood barrier, the damage to your
blood brain barrier, and possible WKS.
So I have two things for homework.
(26:42):
I need to look up what WKS and towel tangles are but I don't
want either of them. And then decision making
impacts. Severe cognitive deficits,
severe addiction cycles. So OK.
OK, so bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. It sounds sounds like 8 is the
current kind of like thresholds for moderate drinking to
(27:04):
obsessive drinking. So that's one kind of take away
and then the other take away. Just reading.
Yeah. So you're hurting yourself long
term. And I have, I mean I've not does
this anything about reversible irreversible?
Yeah, it does. So getting into that abstinence
is listed here as greater than 7plus months of not drinking.
(27:24):
And it says I'll and I'll read some of the actual data from the
section here. But it says there's structural
recovery in some regions and cognitive recovery is possible,
but depends on variables. So what does that mean?
So. It probably age, lifestyle,
overall health, probably things like that I'm assuming.
And dude, that was just the brain that anything.
(27:44):
About heart. About.
Bladder, liver and overall health.
Yeah. And I just want to throw one
thing out there sometimes. Always stuck with me and I try
to take every opportunity to talk about it.
But the hedonic set point, Justin, I think we talked about
this in the past, but we are as humans, we have this thing
called the hedonic set point, which is basically the threshold
of when we can receive an experience dopamine.
(28:06):
And dopamine comes from all over.
It comes from the natural world.It comes from love, affection,
sunrises, visual cues that we take in and in in active
drinking. If you're kind of beyond that
eight a week, probably you know what happens is when alcohol
floods our brain with dopamine, this thing called a hedonic set
point, which is basically our ability to interpret and
(28:27):
experience dopamine moves and shifts so that alcohol can and
often time does become the only like intense joy that we can
experience. And in order to just kind of
experience life and have a like good life and feel joy, you have
to have abstinence because your brain has to reset that hedonic
set point. You can look that up.
(28:48):
I'll even link to it in the description.
But for me, the reason I bring that up is when I was kind of
going through my first period ofabstinence, when I learned how
my brain was changing because ofalcohol, like objectively
learned and then tied that to mysubjective experience.
Like, oh, that's why when I go for a walk around the block, I
don't feel anything anymore. Or that's why I'm urgent or
stressed or anxious or not as patient with my children.
(29:10):
Because your friggin brain is changing because you're flooding
with alcohol. And what do you think is going
to happen? So bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
So if you're drinking too much, I think abstinence, or a period
of abstinence at least, would bewould be.
Well advised just to experience like to show yourself like what
it's going to feel like, becauseI think you're going to surprise
yourself with just the, the, theclarity and yeah, just try it
(29:33):
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All right, last question for this episode.
I'm going to read it word for word because I think it's
awesome. And this is from Joe in
Pennsylvania. We know Joey.
(30:35):
Joey Bocci. What's up, Joey, where is that
question? I wrote the whole thing down
because I loved it. Shoot.
The last one. Where'd it go?
The last one. You want to read it, buddy?
Yeah, read the first. Read the first.
Letter from Joe How can I becomeas swollen good looking as the
two of you? Seriously, how do you balance
(30:55):
growing children, advancing careers, socializing marriages
without becoming so overwhelmed that you fall back into bad
habits? I can barely keep the plate
spinning as it is and for sure can't find time to work out in
there. Yeah.
And this, this is another one, probably the third question this
episode that can be its own episode, right?
I mean, how do you balance everything, right?
And I think when I read this, I was thinking like you have your,
(31:15):
you have your pillars, you have your things that are important,
you have your family, you have your overall health.
And then you have like training that's kind of out here.
And we talk a lot about training.
And I think the challenge for somany guys and gals out there is
like, how do I commit to and stay consistent with like my
physical health and my emotionalhealth when I've just got no
margin and I've got all these other you're on the hamster
(31:35):
wheel every single day. I, I don't think Joe's question
needs a paraphrasing, but that'show I I know.
And. I feel like it's a question that
gets asked by, I mean, a lot of people in, in our in our world,
Like how, how can one person be able to effectively bounce all
this and still make it a priority at the same time?
And I don't think there's a one answer to this question.
I know I feel like a lot of where I'm at now is coming from
(31:57):
trial and error and just seeing what works and what doesn't.
But some of the things that I had to understand in order to
fit all the things in the day that I wanted to is that there's
going to be, if I want to do this, I'm going to have to make
sacrifices because and their sacrifices, unfortunately, in
some sense, instances can be bigger things that you don't
(32:18):
want, which is why you have to be smart about, you know, how
you're going to structure your day and not just wake up and
say, OK, we'll see what the day brings and hope for the best.
So that's why, you know, I've heard about two or three years
straight. And Jess, I know you remember
this too. Like I had my alarm set for like
3:45 in the morning to get to the gym at 4 when it opened.
And I would get like an hour anda half or two hour workout in
(32:39):
before my wife or kids are even awake.
So I know a lot it's it's very easy to say you don't have time
and and some days you're just not going to have time and I get
that. But if it's important to you,
you'll make the time, whether itis, you know, rather than doom
scrolling between work calls for10 minutes, bang out 50 push ups
and 50 sit ups between every call.
(33:00):
It doesn't have to be a 45 minute to an hour at the gym in
order to get a workout. Doesn't have to be perfect.
No, it's 10 pull ups, 50 air squats are better than nothing,
you know, so there's always waysto fit in throughout the day.
You know, I was just listening to a podcast that talks about 5
minute workouts throughout the day and how there's science that
(33:20):
backs that being just as, if notmaybe more beneficial than a
straight 45 minute, 60 minute workout.
So it doesn't have to be, you know, I got to go.
I can't get to my CrossFit classbecause I had to pick up my
kids. Like you can find not fine, but
you'd be lucky if you did. But get resistance bands and
work out from home. Like there's nothing stopping
(33:42):
you from moving your body but you.
And I think the the sooner that we understand that, like, OK, I
can't say that I don't have any more time anymore, then we can
start actually plugging away at what needs to change and what
can we move or sacrifice. Whether it is 30 minutes of
sleep and waking up early and, you know, going for a job, going
(34:02):
for a run, working, lifting, it doesn't have to be perfect.
And I know social media and every single fitness influencer
makes it look like that, but we live in real life, guys, not the
highlight reel. So be kind to yourselves, start
slow and see how you can, you know, incorporate time into your
day, whether it is, again, waking up early and going to the
gym, or you can do it at night too, when the kids are asleep.
(34:25):
Like, I know that's Netflix timeand lifetime, but maybe it's not
every day. It's one to two days to start
and then you you pivot from there.
But there's ways to sneak it in.And if you're prepared, though
it can definitely be hard. I will say that.
Yeah. So message, there is progress
over perfection. We all know that.
(34:46):
Yeah, I'm going to get super specific and tactical and just
kind of share exactly what I did.
Time blocks, time blocks, I think most people know what that
is, but going go into your calendar and physically block
out time. That's kind of the foundation
here. And time like block out things
you are going to do, but perhapsmore importantly times when
you're not going to do anything.And my exact time block looks
(35:09):
like this. So work week Monday through
Friday, I block out five to 6:30every single Monday through
Friday, actually, and and Saturday.
And I literally call that Jesse time.
And typically that means wake up, Rev up, whatever your
morning routine is. That could be coffee in the
Bible. That could be just stare out the
window and and you know, say my life sucks, whatever, whatever
it is, but whatever you whateveryou need, right?
(35:31):
But physical training is in there and it's 5 to 630.
Now, granted, not everybody can do these things.
If you have a three month old child and they have an
unpredictable sleep schedule, I get it.
If you travel a lot, I get it, but I'm talking idealistically
here. 5:00 to 6:30 Monday through Saturday is Jesse time
of which is wake up, coffee, quiet time, workout, shower.
That's an hour and a half. That's all you need, right?
(35:53):
And then I literally block out the next one which is family
time, which is pre work and I block it out and that I don't
put anything in there, but I'm just telling myself you are to
be present with your family. And then the next block is work
time, whatever that looks like for y'all, right?
But you block it out. And then at the end of that,
there's an hour at the very end before I transition from work to
(36:15):
family, which is Jesse time again.
Now that can fill up with more work if that makes me feel
comfortable and in control. But it can be anything I want it
to be. And just having that space and
freedom at the end of the day gives me that extra margin.
So I've got the block in the morning, I've got the block and
I'll call like the early evening.
And then the next block, you know exactly what it is.
It's family time again, right? And then this next one's huge
(36:36):
Sunday completely blocked nothing.
It's supposed to be a Sabbath. Does stuff creep into there?
Like if I didn't mow the lawn because it rained on Saturday,
now I'm mowing it on Sunday fine.
Because I think the last piece outside of blocking things and
trying to stick to them is also don't hold so tight to the
blocks that it stresses you the hell out.
Because the whole, the whole point is not to be stressed, but
it's just a system that you can use to know that you have that
(36:58):
protected space. But then you have to be
disciplined and use the space for what it was intended for.
But that's a super tactical, I think Justin hit very like
really eloquently on like the high level perspective that you
have to take destruction your day.
And then me personally, I've been living off of time blocks
for like 15 years. It's served me very well.
Do they get out of whack sometimes when life gets crazy?
(37:19):
Yes. But you have to let go of that
and then return to it as soon asyou can.
So that's just a little practical take away from my view
that. Was very, very well worded and
very practical as well. Thank you.
You gonna try it? I actually do use calendar
blocks as well, only I have like8 to 930 blocked off every
morning because, well, not now because it's summer, but that
(37:39):
was kids school drop off a little before 8:00 and then
lifetime. It's a breakdown the road from
the kids school. So listen, I would stop at the
gym there for an hour before ourday starts.
And obviously some days we have earlier calls where we can't do
that. And you know, it's not the end
of the world, but we can move things around or flexible with
our workouts, get something doneat home.
But to your point, Jess, I thinkwhat you said is insanely
(38:01):
important. And and one of the main
takeaways that I took from what you just said is be proactive
with your time and or that you are being selfish with your time
when it allows to work on you, whatever that looks like,
whether that's journaling, meditating, working on your dark
side, whatever it may be. But having that time set aside
for you, whether you know what you're going to do with that
(38:23):
that day or not heading into it like it's very important.
I think so. I love that, Jess.
All right, everybody love these Ask us anythings.
Remember, they're at the end of every single month.
So we'll reach out. We'd love to hear your
questions. As I said in the beginning of
the episode, you can come to ourwebsite and drop your questions
off or if you want to be on the guest, another ask if you would,
if you enjoyed this show or you think someone else could benefit
from it, please follow us. You can follow us and find us
(38:45):
wherever podcasts are, and that includes Apple Music, Spotify,
all the places, YouTube, if you want.
We have awesome content that we put out on our social media
channels. So please find us and follow us
there. Share this show with anyone that
you think get some benefit from it.
And as always, we're so gratefulthat you joined us here on the
Running Free podcast. We'll see you next time.
Thanks for joining.
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