Pat and Richard discuss the meaning of Jesus' most important commandments, and Richard gives valuable advice on the important roll nutrition plays in recovery and our daily lives.
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(00:23):
Good morning, rich.
Uh, good off.
Good morning, pat.
Good afternoon, rich.
Yeah.
Morning to me.
Morning to you.
Afternoon to you.
Unless the world startedspinning in the wrong direction
there, who knows, man, thesedays anything could happen.
(00:44):
You never know, man.
You just, you wake up and you gowith Yeah.
That, I noticed, about a yearago, they had, uh, things have
gotten so crazy that, in theUnited States Congress, they,
they had, the congressmen, theyall got together and they had
this meeting.
Uh, this hearing where theypretty much admitted that aliens
existed, and everybody was justkinda like, what are we having
(01:05):
for lunch?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, no one believes anythinganymore.
You know what's everything?
No one believes anythinganymore.
Everything's fake news.
Is that what it is?
Yeah.
It was just like we, we werejust like, yeah.
So what I, I don't think they'reinterested.
I think they came, landed andboom.
Yeah.
You guys, you guys are nuts.
Like, yeah.
(01:27):
Like there's nothing worthinvading here or engaging with
like you guys are, Matt, I thinkthat just came.
No, we're not getting in themiddle of this.
Yes.
Yeah, ahead now.
So how are things in themotherland, today?
Yeah.
Doing okay, pat?
Yeah, it's, uh, kind of cloudy,gray, coolish days, so another
(01:50):
glorious, uh, Britishsummertime.
Oh, actually it's been quite anice summer, but yeah, it's a
bit cooler today, which isn'tthe end of the world.
Um, I've been out doing a bit ofwork and, um, and now I'm home
and get to talk to you and talkabout Jesus and addiction
recovery.
So everything's good in, in myworld, mate, what about you?
Um, well,, to paraphrase, of oneof your, famous, great
(02:14):
countrymen, Charles Dickens.
It's the best of times and it'sthe worst of times.
We are at the end of summer.
You know how hot it gets here inthe summertime.
Okay.
And we love the summer.
We love the beaches, we love thewater.
We love going out, you know, welove the, the lush, the
greenery.
We don't even mind the heatuntil we get to the end of
(02:35):
August.
Then we're thick of it and it'slike 97 degrees Fahrenheit, and,
you know, falls right around thecorner.
But.
That's the best of times becausewe've got the fall coming up
football season, or as we sayhere in the south football, the
ball.
(02:56):
So we're all looking forward toit.
So we're right here on theprecipice.
So we got the, the best of timesfall's the best of time of year
for me, but the worst is righthere at the end of August.
And one of the things that makesit the worst, not just the heat,
but now we have this last littlecouple weeks of hurricane season
and you guys don't get toexperience that, do you?
Uh, we had a hurricane, likeliterally, this isn't even a
(03:16):
joke.
We had a hurricane in 1987.
People still talk about it nowstraight up.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Well, the thing about hurricaneseason, this actually kind of
tests, our Christianity or our,our paying Jesus.
Because here's what happens, thehurricane, you start pay, you
pay attention to'em at this timeof year.
(03:37):
They form off the coast ofAfrica.
And so you hear, oh, there's aninves.
There's a system that'sdeveloping out there.
So we start watching.
It's a couple weeks away, butwhat we're hoping is.
If you live in the Gulf, if youlive inside the Gulf, if you
like Florida, uh, Alabama,Mississippi, Louisiana, all the
way around the Texas, the firstthing we're thinking is, please
(04:00):
God, let it go.
Hit the east coast.
So we just, we want it to take aright turn, you know, just
subconsciously not even reallythink.
You know, and it's, so, it'sgonna hit the, we want it to
move out.
Like we have one right now,Aaron.
It formed my first reaction.
Oh, let that thing go north.
Well, you're not thinkingthere's somebody out there.
Let it go hit Bermuda.
(04:21):
Uh, you know, they turn up northif it comes into the gulf.
Then we're on watch and we startthinking, let it go straight.
Let it hit Mexico.
It's not us.
I mean, I know that's not right,but that's our thinking.
Then if it starts turning north,we start, if you live where I
live in Mississippi,'cause we'vebeen through some very horrible
(04:41):
hurricanes.
I mean it's, it was like a bombhad dropped here, power off and
you kind of get bombed back tothe stone age.
But then we start hoping it hitsour neighbors.
It's not what we're, you know,we're really not wanting to hit
us, but, oh man, I hope thatthing, oh, maybe it'll go to
Houston.
If it starts turning to theright, well, maybe it'll go hit
Tampa, and then we get, then weget, oh, it looked like it's
(05:04):
going towards Tampa.
And then what is the first thingwe do?
We, we all start thinking, oh,well y'all pray with, let's pray
for the people in Tampa.
So, so now we're ready to prayfor the people that we've been
hoping.
We're gonna get hit by thathurricane instead of us.
And I got to thinking, it's kindof like, the Bible verse when
(05:26):
they ask, I think it was, uh,Matthew 34.
Well, when the Pharisees askJesus, I think maybe Matthew 36
40 possible.
Let's have a little look.
Matthew 36.
Matthew only goes up to 28,dude.
(05:48):
Well then that's not it.
It's 30.
I know it's 36, 30, 36, 40, butthe verse is the Pharisee Ask
Jesus teacher.
He's kind of trying to test him.
He says.
What are the most importantcommandments?
So if you Google that.
(06:08):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm looking what bit of theBible does the Pharisee ask?
Jesus, what is the mostimportant for moments?
Have a little look, pat Matthew22, 32, 34 to 40.
(06:31):
So you were close, pat, let'shave a little, not really that
close.
Well, you had the verses.
Yeah.
You just didn't have thechapter.
So I think give, give yourself alittle bit of credit.
Pat.
Yeah, A little bit.
Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah.
I'm not the bible scholar, butwhat he says is the first, the
most important, tell me if I'mreading, if I'm getting this
right, is to love the Lord thyGod with all your heart.
(06:56):
That's the greatest, right?
But then he says the second one,and this one is something I
don't think people really pay alot, that pay a lot of attention
to what he may have beenmeaning.
Then he says, and see if I getthis right.
Love thy neighbor as you loveyourself, or love thy neighbor
as I have loved you.
(07:18):
Am I close?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
All the law and the prophetshang on these two commandments.
Right?
So to me, and I just startedthinking about that.
To me, he has given us acommandment that is virtually
impossible to live up to.
'cause I don't know anybody thatdoes that.
(07:39):
You may do that.
Uh.
I every day get up and I'mtrying to follow Jesus.
I'm trying to do what I'msupposed to do but who does?
I just wonder sometimes if hedidn't give us a commandment
that he knew we could nevermeasure up to.
Just letting us know that, yourgrace, your salvation is not
about you fulfillingcommandments.
(08:00):
It's through my blood that Ished for you, but this is what
you should aspire to.
Yes.
I was wondering what yourthoughts on that, because I
don't do that.
I'm not saying I shouldn't dothat, but just like the
hurricanes, I noticed the otherday, I'm like, I am literally
first I'm hoping this thing goesover here.
I'm hoping it goes over here,but it goes into everything else
in life, you know, is, well,it's like.
(08:24):
That's the point of grace, isn'tit?
For me, like as I understand it,it's like, look, Jesus was the
only one that could like fulfillthe law.
You know?
I came to fulfill the law.
Right?
So he was the only one thatcould, like, he was the only one
among us that was perfect.
Right?
He was the only one among usthat was like without sin.
So that's why he came, right?
(08:46):
Because like no one else, no onecould live up to the law.
So he came, paid the price forour sins.
But then what he does is hemakes some strong, very strong
suggestions about how we should,we should try and live.
You know, I like really like, sothe book that really turned it
around for me in my faith walkwas the Muff in Gospel by
Brennan Manning And Manningtalks about this extensively,
(09:07):
right?
He's like, you are gonna get itwrong.
Like, that's the point.
That's why he came.
You know, but Christianity andbeing a follower of Jesus Christ
is not about an enforcedmorality, but what it's about is
like if you allowed a spirit towork through you, then you will
be more equipped to like to livelike that, right?
(09:28):
If the spirit's within you.
Right.
But because obviously we havethe flesh and.
Like our, our humanity willnever get it right all the time.
And that's why we need a saviorwithout our, and I think he
talks, he kind of talks aboutthis in Romans, right?
Paul talks about this in Romans,but it's like, it's that
fallibility that meant we need asavior.
(09:49):
Because if it, if we didn't havethat, we wouldn't have needed a
savior.
So the whole thing.
Completes itself in that regard,right?
It's like, yeah, like it's'causeof our imperfection that we
need, that we needed Jesus inthe first place and that's why
he came.
But then he tells us that weshould try and live and then we
do our best to kind of live upto that, you know, and that, but
knowing that we'll always fail,like knowing that we'll always
fail at some point, becausethat's the whole point.
(10:12):
And that's why he came, youknow?
That's kinda what I wasthinking.
That's an excellent way ofexplaining.
'cause that's what I wasthinking.
He's done two things there.
He's given you something toaspire to and the Holy Spirit
does remind me.
I mean, I say it jokingly about,Hey, we want this to go hit
Houston, or we hope it goes inthis direction, but it does.
That's what it dawned on me theother day.
It's like you're literallysitting there thinking, uh,
(10:35):
you're gonna be happy if it'sgonna hit the city or this town,
and so when there are things,when I'm not living up to that,
when I'm not loving that and theneighbor means everybody, when
I'm not doing that, a voice goesoff in my head.
So I think you're exactly right.
He's describing that here'ssomething to aspire to.
You should shoot for that, butyou're not going to hit it.
(10:59):
That's why I came.
So what you said was brilliantthere.
So, speaking of your brilliance,our episode a couple of weeks
ago on overcoming when, you weretalking about the first step, I
got some comments.
About that, that helps somepeople, that are going through
recovery, beginning recovery,and oh, and by the way, if
anybody, to our listeners,whatever platform you're on,
(11:23):
there is a send a text button onmost of the platforms.
If you have a comment like thesefolks have.
You have a question?
I mean, if you have anything, ifyou're, if you know Jesus, if
you don't know Jesus, if it'ssomething about aic, what?
Addiction, loneliness, anythingthat we like to give you some
advice or discuss, send acomment and, we're able to, we
(11:46):
will discuss it on here.
If you don't have that on theplatform or you're on YouTube,
you can go to pat mccool.com,send me an email.
Because we just have a passionto, help people out.
And we have an awful lot ofexperience in being able to do
it because we both did it wrongthe first way.
And that's how I've learned.
That's how I've learned.
(12:07):
So, so feel free to send in acomment, send in an email like
these folks did, and, we wouldtry.
We won't mention your name ifyou don't want to, but we'd be
certainly willing to discuss anddo whatever we can in a
discussion.
But this post that you made thatI thought was really important.
Can I read the, it's a LinkedInpost.
Yeah, go for it, pat.
(12:28):
For Richard, and this appliesnot just to addiction, but I
think it's very, it is veryimportant that people that are
going through recovery, butwe'll do this and then you can,
elaborate on it.
It says, we wouldn't try tobuild a house without raw
materials, so why do we expectthe brain to function without
them?
Therapy, especially with clientsin early recovery or those
(12:51):
struggling with mood, compulsivebehaviors or burnout.
I'm increasingly drawn to thequestion, what's the system
being asked to run on?
We often talk about trauma,attachment, psychological
patterns, all vital, but thebiochemical foundations math.
There are two brains that areundernourished, inflamed, or
depleted.
(13:11):
Simply don't have the capacityfor the kind of regulation and
reflection that recoverydemands.
A few basics.
I always come back to protein.
It's non-negotiable.
It provides the building blocks,amino acids for dopamine,
serotonin, GA a, b, a and more.
Without enough high qualityprotein, many clients are stuck
(13:32):
chasing motivation or mood thatisn't coming back because the
raw ingredients just aren'tthere.
Omega threes, especiallyE-P-A-D-H-A from fish oil, help
with inflammation, mood andbrain repair.
Some studies even suggest theysupport impulse control.
And reduce aggression.
I've seen real changes inclients when this is added
(13:54):
consistently amino acids like,like L tyrosine.
I might be pronouncing thatwrong.
No, that's right.
H-T-P-D-L-P-A and thine can begame changers.
And you've put in asterisk.
When used carefully, they helpreplenish the neurotransmitters
flattened by years ofsubstances, stress or
(14:15):
restriction.
But they're not one size fitsall, and they work best when
used alongside professionalsupport nutrition alone.
Won't heal trauma or rebuildtrust in relationships.
But I've seen time and again,how stabilizing the body can
give clients just enoughbandwidth to start engaging with
therapy from a place ofstrength, not survival.
(14:36):
We need to keep expanding theway we think about recovery.
Food, mood, and mood andbehavior are linked and we
ignore it that at our peril.
Yes, that's brilliant.
And something that I didn'treally think about.
Well, that's the whole point ofit, pat, really is that like not
many people do, right?
(14:58):
So we know that, you know,addiction therapy is helpful,
right?
Like 12 step programs helpful.
Yeah.
Like there's lots of good stuffthat can and does happen in
those like that kind ofpsychological social approach,
right?
There's obviously strong.
Like spiritual element and whatthat means to different people
(15:21):
is different things, but youknow, to us that's Jesus.
Right.
Um, and that is of course, likea, you know, a vital, you know,
the biggest component for manyYeah.
That get to be touched in thatway.
Um, but there's this whole like,biological component that just
gets missed.
Right.
And, um, it's the, the buildingblocks of.
(15:44):
Neurotransmitters, you know,it's what we put in our body.
So you can explain addictionfrom like a purely like
neurological standpoint.
You know, we're talking aboutdepleted neurotransmitters.
We're talking about like abehavior that's, um, that's
driven and governed by themidbrain, the limbic system that
overwhelms logic, you know,emotions, trump logic every
(16:07):
time, and that's why people endup doing things.
Being driven towards doingthings, which then even to them
later on, make no sense.
You know, so you'll hear therelapse.
The guy that's just, you know,used a shed load of cocaine or,
you know, been on a big, likealcohol binge and like, you
know, woken up and like, youknow, what have I done?
(16:29):
Why did I do that?
You know, look at the, you know,the harm, the pain, of course,
myself and others, once again.
And it doesn't make any sense.
But then if you look at thatfrom a neurological standpoint,
it's like a brain that's likecrying out for, you know,
whatever it might be forsomething that it's learned,
(16:49):
makes it feel a bit better.
Right.
Like it's very difficult forthat brain to heal if you're not
giving it the things that helpit heal, you know?
So you need to be fueling thebrain, giving the brain what it
needs to repair and to like, andto run like properly, you know,
like to, you know, to allowwhat's called like executive
(17:10):
functioning.
So that's like the decisionmaking, you know, to be able to
make good decisions.
You know, like I want to have adrink.
Maybe what I should do is callsomeone.
Maybe what I should do is pray.
Maybe what I should do is go toa meeting.
Maybe what I should do iscontact my therapist.
You know?
But like that's, that all goesoffline in a brain that's just
not able to function properly.
(17:30):
'cause it doesn't have thebuilding blocks of that.
Yeah, that makes, I go all theway back to the days when I was,
doing the drugs, the drinkingall the time.
I felt horrible all the time.
So you got up and you, you know,it, one thing led to the other.
I felt horrible.
So instead of doing the thingsthat would make me feel better
(17:53):
internally, it's, you know, it'stime to go do the drugs, time to
go do the drink instead ofmaking yourself feel better.
I mean, doing things that willactually make you feel better
and the better you feel, thebetter decision making.
Is that part of what you'resaying there?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's, it's difficult to makehealthy decisions if your
(18:13):
brain's not working properly,you know?
So what you end up doing is youchase the thing that will, for a
short time, make you feel betterlike cocaine.
So you in, you injected cocaine,right?
I remember that from your book.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that is like this hugedopamine dump.
Right.
Like, you know, like, you know,many, many, many, many times
greater than like a normal,like, do mean reg, you know, it
(18:34):
governs behavior.
It's the re the rewardneurotransmitter.
It drives us towards things thatmake us feel good.
But for most people, that mightbe like a stake.
Yeah.
Like, you know, like a night,you know, walking by a river,
you know, whatever.
Like some, you know, like anormal human thing, but then you
hit, you hit.
With like something thatreleases that much dopamine and
(18:56):
then you have a crash, right?
So if you are not giving thebrain enough, enough fuel to
make a healthy level ofdopamine, you know, then you'll
automatically be drawn back tothe thing that offers some hope
of like you rekindling thatlevel of dopamine again, right?
(19:17):
So, so that's like injectingmore cocaine, you know?
And that's why eventually.
You'll get to the point wherethe cocaine doesn't do what it
did.
That's why people are alwayschasing that first high pat.
Yeah, because that first hugedump of dopamine is the first
time you experienced that.
Like, I mean, it's amazing,right?
(19:38):
You know, like I was a cracksmoker, right?
The first time I smoked crack Iwas just like, you know, it was
like just this almost like brandinden experience, right?
But so you'll always be tastingthat.
Until you give the brain thestuff that it makes just to like
start generating enough dopaminein a healthy fashion, you'll
keep, you know, you'll keepchasing that.
(19:58):
And then the other side to thatis that like if you don't give
the brain what it needs throughthe food, in fact you give it
what it doesn't need.
So what we see in earlyrecovery, and this becomes
normalized somewhat, is peopleare chasing the things that are
like less aversions of thecocaine sugar.
(20:20):
Like nicotine, caffeine, so theyfill themselves up with that.
We see that a lot.
You know, like you go to an AAmeeting, there'll be a lot of
people smoking outside.
Yeah.
You go to like, I dunno, someother kind of convention, like,
I dunno, a car sales personconvention.
You won't see that many peoplesmoking outside.
So like covering addicts,they're chasing all these things
(20:42):
to try and like get some versionof that, like dopamine hit.
But it's like a dirty dopaminehit and it keeps those addictive
circuits alive, you know?
And that's like, you know,relapse is linked to that.
You know, relapse is linked tothat.
So you start giving your brainenough fuel to make enough
dopamine and what you'll see ispeople, rather than like forcing
(21:06):
themselves to stop drinkingcaffeine, even sugar or, or to
smoke a bit less, smoking's alittle bit more complicated, but
like they will be naturally lessdrawn towards.
Because their brain is notsomewhere behind the scenes
saying, we need that.
We need that.
We need that.
We need that.
We need that.
We need to get something that'sgonna get some dopamine going
here, man.
(21:26):
We need to, you know, becauseit's got enough, it's got what
it needs to like be doing thaton its own, you know, given it
what it needs.
You the nail on the head whenthe, the ejecting of the
cocaine?
Uh, you know, I mentioned Iwasn't physically, I was
emotionally, but maybe I wasphysically, but when I ejected
that cocaine, like you said,that was, I mean, that was an
(21:51):
experience.
I, right then I was thinking,how can I go the rest of my life
feeling like this?
Because this is it, and it, andI never felt that way again.
It, you could have turned rightaround the next day and gotten a
better quality where you chaseit, you're always chasing that,
having that very fir I don'tknow if heroin was like that.
(22:11):
Uh, but I, I never got thatagain.
I just kept chasing it and keptchasing it.
And you're talking about, I keptmaking one bad decision.
They kept getting worse andworse.
And as far as.
Nutrition.
I wasn't really eating at all.
I didn't even really care.
You would just eat, you know,just something just to maybe at
one o'clock in the morning ortwo o'clock, you didn't really
think about it.
(22:32):
All you were really thinking wastrying to get that next hit or
get back to that feeling again.
So your mind, I guess, is, isprogrammed.
So I think that's greatinformation that you're saying
the food staying nutritiousbecause.
Once I, you know, once Istarted, once I became a
(22:53):
believer, started getting my acttogether, you know, which we're,
we're not gonna rehash that, youknow, we've talked about it or
it's in the book.
Um, I started exercising'cause Iwas, had gotten outta shape and
so I started exercising and allof a sudden I started feeling
better.
I started going out and jogging.
(23:13):
I started running.
I started, um.
You know, lifting weights alittle bit and then I just
started feeling better andbetter.
And then it was a high to go outand exercise and sweat and then
come in, and then less and less,you're wanting those bad things.
You're talking about the steak,for example.
(23:35):
Right now, the thought of eatinga steak is, is very thrilling to
me.
I mean, you know, it really is.
I get excited about it, youknow, I'm just like, oh, I got
back then you didn't care.
So, uh, all those normal, thethings that would otherwise give
you great pleasure in life arecompletely gone.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly that.
Right?
So it's like I, I liken it tothis.
(23:56):
I explain it to the people Iwork with like this, right?
It's like if you live on arollercoaster with all of its
highs and lows, imagine youlived on a rollercoaster for
four years.
Yeah.
Like when you get off thatrollercoaster, right?
Like walking around theamusement park at a leisure
pace, it's gonna be pretty dull.
Yeah.
Like it's not gonna be a lot offun.
(24:18):
Right.
It takes time to get used to.
Not being on that rollercoaster,it takes a lot of time to start
to be able to rest a little bitof pleasure from normal,
pleasurable things, right?
So it's like, and you have toallow, that's a lot often.
There's like a very gray periodafter people clean up.
You know, it's like nothing.
(24:39):
What do you wanna do?
Nothing.
Do you know what I mean?
Like nothing.
Like nothing really offers youmuch pleasure and it takes time
for that to reset.
It could take 60 days, it couldtake six months.
It depends how much you've beenhitting it, but the help the
brain to start functioningproperly, to help it rebuild, to
start it help to be able togenerate enough.
(25:01):
Neurotransmitters to promote abit of functioning and to start
to enjoy life again.
You know, it, you know, givingit the right fuel is essential.
So it's like protein 80 to 120grams a day.
Split that into four doses.
Yeah.
So like breakfast, you know,lunch, afternoon, snack and
dinner.
Yeah, a lot of protein.
Well, it is and it isn't right.
(25:23):
Like it is, and it isn't, youknow, it's actually not that,
you know, if a, a chicken breasthas, say a good sized chicken
breast might be like 80, uh,excuse me, it might be 20.
Right.
Like four chicken.
Yeah.
Four chicken breast a day.
Like four protein bars a day.
Yeah.
Although you're better offeating like natural foods.
Right.
But so like protein, healthyfats, you know, like fatty fish.
(25:47):
Yeah.
Lots of greens, complex carbs.
So you don't get that, you know,spike and crash in the blood
sugar.
Yeah, blood sugar's important aswell, you know, and that thing
you can use, use like goodquality Omega-3 fish oil.
Yeah, that's, that's helpful.
Yeah, that really helps thebrain start kind of firing
again.
And, um, you know, I've, I'veworked with guys that free fish
(26:09):
oil.
Yeah.
So you're looking for somethingwith the kind of, um, a good
amount of EHE and DEHA and DPAin it.
Um, yeah.
And take, like taking that onthe daily.
Um, so the supplements not justthe food.
'cause I remember I used to takea, an omega, uh, it was like a
(26:29):
gold Omega-3, I guess it was.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You, you think that's good too?
What about a, like a proteinsupplement if you, if you're not
eating, not a proteinsupplement, but like a powdered
shake or something like that?
Yeah, look, they're a reallygood thing to fall back on.
I often talk to people aboutusing those things, um, as like
a breakfast food.
(26:50):
So like traditionally bread,like it's quite hard to find
things that are full of proteinfor breakfast, unless you're
talking like sausages and baconand you know, like eggs.
They say eggs.
Eggs are really good.
But like, you know, most people,busy lives who are on the go,
you know, like sometimes people,they're not gonna scramble some
eggs every morning.
(27:10):
Right.
You know, they're not gonna frysome eggs every morning.
So what you would need to helppeople avoid is like people
would have.
I mean, in your country, likepeople eat donuts for breakfast,
right?
That's like, that's likeprobably the worst thing you can
eat for breakfast, for mentalhealth.
But over here, like we would eatlike croissants.
So you'd have a bowl of cereal.
(27:32):
There's no, I mean, there's abit of protein in the milk, but
not much, right?
So like protein shakes in themorning can't be helpful.
Handful of nuts for your likehealthy fats.
A little bit of protein.
A decent amount of protein innuts.
Yeah, just what, whatever,however you get it into, you,
get it into you.
If you're gonna have scrambledeggs on toast, like have a good
quality, kind of like a dark ryebread with like pump and nickel,
(27:55):
you know, like that's somethinglike substantial like that.
Yeah.
And like, just so you, withthat, you're giving yourself,
you, you got some, some goodquality fats in the, in the alk.
Yeah, you've got lots ofprotein, egg white, you've got
some complex carbohydrates, youknow, in this kind of good
quality heavy bread.
Right?
That's a good setup for the day.
(28:17):
You know, eating a bowl ofCaptain Crunch and.
A donut is not, you know, that'slike the opposite of what you
need for breakfast, you know,but like, so you, you know, it's
helping people find ways andhelping people to find ways for
work that work for them as well.
Um, yeah, makes a lot of sense.
'cause I've noticed, if I don'teat like a pipe, you know, a lot
(28:40):
of protein early in the day, Ijust get tired and I get really,
if I eat a lot of carbs.
I mean, I like, I like potatoesand things like that, but if I
eat a lot of carbs, I'm crashingand I'm getting tired.
Even if I'm just sitting around,doing something and I'm one of
those that I'm not hungry in themorning, I'm not that hungry.
I'm not gonna sit down and eatone of those, put me into a coma
(29:01):
breakfast.
You know, sausage eggs that justthe thought of that makes me
just want to go lay down and goto sleep.
So I start every day with a,like a make my own fruit
smoothie.
I just put fruit in blenderfruit with some low fat yogurt.
Um, but I guess you could put ascope of, throw a scoop of
protein in there, just like 10%,man.
Yeah.
To throw that in there.
(29:21):
Yeah.
Next thing you know what fruit'sgood, but fruit's got a lot of
sugar in it.
And even though it's naturallyoccurring sugar, you know,
that's still like blood sugarspike and crash.
Oh, so does it really?
Yeah, so like I, I would say,you know, like throwing some
protein powder in there ishelpful.
You know, definitely throwingsome protein powder in there
would be a good idea.
(29:42):
So even with the fruit, evenwith the fruit, it has the sugar
that's going to spike you.
And then you have somewhat of acrash there.
Yeah.
And as how I understand it now,look, I'm not an expert in this
stuff, but I've done a, a bit oftraining, you know, and I, I,
I've seen, you know, some greatresults applying it in my
practice.
But when you blend it all, yeah.
Like, rather than the body, youknow, needing to break it down.
(30:07):
Which slows the release into thebloodstream of those sugars.
When you blend it all, it just,it just hits you, you know?
It's like boom.
'cause it's already broken down.
So that, that's another thing toconsider.
If you are gonna eat fruit inthe morning, fruit's obviously a
good thing, but maybe like eatit rather than drink it.
(30:27):
That could be helpful as well.
Um, yeah, blend, freeze it.
You know, I put a bunch ofbananas, strawberries, yogurt,
some milk, apple juice, blend itup and just drink it.
Other than that, I'm not thathungry in the morning.
I'm not gonna sit down and I'mnot going to.
I'm not gonna just pile in a bigbreakfast, but what you're
(30:48):
saying is making yourself feelgood is, makes it a lot easier
to re resist temptations to thethings that are gonna make you.
Relapse or it's going or it'sgonna make you make a lot better
decisions.
Yeah.
And it's like, look, there'sthis idea that early recovery,
you know, early sobriety issupposed to be really hard.
(31:10):
Yeah.
You're supposed to have a lowmood, like it's supposed to be
agra, what we would call agraft, like a slog, you know,
like a difficult endeavor,right.
That, you know, you'reessentially, you're gonna
suffer.
Right.
And there is some truth in that,regardless of what you do, you
know, cleaning up, gettingsober, it's not the easiest
thing in the world.
'cause you know, often, like youkind of come, it's almost like
(31:31):
you come to right after, likehaving been in a coma or like a
trance or being possessed, youknow, for like however many
months or years.
Right.
But, um, if you give your bodywhat it needs to start to, you
know, to start to help the brainto regenerate and repair itself,
right, it makes it a lot easier.
It makes it a lot easier forsure.
(31:53):
I said when I, uh.
Started, you know, getting myact together as I started, you
know, becoming a believer.
But I'd started making thesegood choices and I started
enjoying things that I didn'tenjoy before.
I enjoyed going out and gettinga sweating walk.
I enjoyed exercising.
I enjoyed kind of e eating well,and so I was in a much better,
(32:15):
the point is I just startedbecoming happier, not just
because I was getting the HolySpirit and joy in my life.
That was the most, that was themost important thing, but
physically.
I was starting to enjoy thingsthat I'd never enjoyed before.
I was like, look, I feel a lotbetter doing this.
I don't, you know, I don't feelsick and tired all the time.
So then life itself startsbecoming a much more enjoyable
(32:36):
experience.
So, well, yeah, having seen yourstory, obviously I've read your
story Pat, right, and um, uh,eat.
Your life was a rollercoaster.
Right?
Right.
You there was a lot of recklessbehavior, a lot of adventures, a
lot of highs and lows.
Yeah.
A lot of, you know, like carcrash, you know, flying through
the air in a car, landing upsidedown, you know, all that kinda
(32:58):
stuff, right?
Lots and lots of spikes.
And then you introduce the drugsto that, and even bigger spikes,
right?
So yeah, like getting accustomedto doing healthy things, getting
off the rollercoaster.
It's a process, but it's, youknow, if you stick with it, it,
it, you know, it gets better andit, it, it, you know, it gets a
lot better.
Yeah.
Um, I guess the other thing totalk about as well, you know, as
(33:19):
I mentioned at the end of thatpost that you, you can't leave
it out, is the supplementation.
So tyrosine just a little bit onthat.
Tyrosine is a, uh, a dopamineprecursor.
So that is, that is the, the,the protein, the amino acid.
Amino acid and protein is, isprotein.
(33:39):
Like tyrosine is the exact typeof protein that your brain needs
to generate dopamine.
So like I, I've worked with guyswho they're constantly
preoccupied with thoughts oftheir addiction.
You know, they, they may havebeen sober for some time.
Constantly preoccupied.
Right.
(34:00):
Uh, they drink a lot ofcaffeine.
They vape a lot.
You know, they, they, they eat alot of sugary food.
Yeah.
Now all of that is the brainsaying, screaming out.
For more dopamine.
Yeah, like screaming out for it,right?
'cause the levels are so low.
So you take these kind of dirtydopamine hits, right?
(34:20):
So like just to try it, youknow, it's the brain's best
effort based on what it knows atthat point to try and get some
more dopamine.
If you give it the fuel it needsto make enough dopamine, people
will naturally find themselvesless drawn towards those things
in a way that's quite intuitive.
You know, it's not like.
It's not like a a, what wouldyou call it?
(34:41):
Like an immense effort of will,you know, I must stop.
I need to not, it's likeactually, like I don't fancy, I
don't fancy getting a donut inthe afternoon.
I don't feel like that, youknow, actually, I don't think, I
don't think I'm gonna, you know,like reaching for the vape,
actually.
I don't, I don't wanna vape.
You know, it's like that sort ofthing.
So Ty's team's good for that.
(35:02):
Just run through these quickly,pat, for the listeners.
Five HTP, serotonin.
So a lot of kind of like anxietyand obsessive thoughts and sort
of like, um, low mood, uh, willoften be linked to a shortfall
in serotonin.
So you give your, you know, youintroduce some five HTP that
helps your brain to make somemore serotonin.
(35:26):
DLPA, that's about endorphins.
If you're low in endorphins,endorphins are kinda like the
warm and fuzzies, you know,like.
So messed those up.
You, you, you messed those upwhen you're doing a lot of drugs
and Oh, yeah, man, that stuff'sall over the place, you know,
all over the place.
You know.
Um, I mean like, just I guess abit of information that's
useful.
It's like, it isn't cocaine thatmakes you feel good.
(35:49):
It's what cocaine gets the brainto do.
You know, what cocaine does isit makes the brain release huge
amounts of dopamine, you know?
So like cocaine in of itselfdoesn't actually make you feel
good, but it's what it does tothe brain.
You know, like everything we dois governed by
neurotransmitters, everything,our decisions around food, our
decisions around sex, ourdecision around drugs, our
(36:09):
decisions around alcohol, ourdecisions about, you know, are
we gonna go left?
We're gonna walk out a door.
Am I gonna go left or right?
It's all governed byneurotransmitters, you know?
Um, so it helping your brain getto some sort of like stability
is a really good thing, youknow?
So if you are, go on Pat.
(36:30):
Sorry.
No, you go.
But like, if you are a guy or agirl and you're in early
recovery and you're, you know,you're drinking like seven cups
of coffee in the morning, youknow, and then vaping all day,
and then, you know, you want tohit like a load of sugar.
You get in, in the eveningsafter your meeting, and the only
thing you can think about ishitting a load of kinda sugary
food, you know, candy, donuts,you know, whatever.
(36:51):
Yeah.
Then you might want to, youmight wanna have a look at this.
Yeah.
You might wanna have a look atthis.
Yeah.
Before you, you finished, youwere theanine, you have theanine
listed.
You listed the first off.
Where do you get, uh, where doyou get the, uh, tyrosine?
Oh, go to CVS go to Walgreens,you know, in this country.
(37:12):
Um, you, the best place I wouldsay to get it in this country
would be to go to, um, would beto go on Amazon.
Yeah, but be careful'causethere's a lot that you have to
check the reviews on Amazon.
There's a website called iHub.
Um, that's good.
Um, the food, yeah.
It's not just something you getin food, it's better taking in a
(37:36):
supplement or is there a way toget in food?
The tyrosine, if you've got areally good diet, you can give
your body everything it needs todo this.
However, if you've got a seriousdepletion Yeah.
If your brain is really likestarving and crying out for
these things, using somesupplements is a good idea.
Yeah.
Um, like the supplements are.
(37:56):
They're a bit of a shortcut.
You know, they are a bit of ashortcut.
Yeah.
And that it can kind of go handin hand, right?
'cause it's like, oh, I've givenmy brain enough dopamine.
Now I feel enough motivation togo to the store.
Go with the shop.
We'd say here, right.
And, and buy some decent food.
You know, so it's almost like,you know, the supplements can
(38:16):
definitely be a bit of ajumpstart.
You know, they can definitely betaking the supplements, learning
what food that is in there.
That DLPA, uh, you, it seemedlike that was important.
I have no clue what that, whatis that?
And where do you get the DLPA?
Could you buy that in asupplement?
Is that in food?
Same.
Go on Amazon.
Go into, um, CVS or Walgreens.
(38:39):
Yeah, like you'll, you'll findit.
So, you know, it just seems likemost of this stuff is in the
food.
You know, if you go back to theBible and just see the stuff
that God provided us to eat.
Not all the stuff that we'vemanufactured.
So much of the stuff we havenow, it's just preservatives.
It's pretty manufactured,especially in America.
You know, you talked aboutCaptain Crunch.
(39:00):
Yeah.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe thing where the bottle of
the box of cereal in the UK haslike four or five ingredients
and then the one in America.
Just there's like war and peace.
Yeah.
You know, of all of these, uh,preservatives.
But, so if you, people just didresearch on what's the good food
that had all of these things inthere, you mentioned thine, my
(39:22):
wife, because this is not justfor recovery.
This is just basic day-to-dayliving and feeling good.
Even just being a follower ofChrist you wanna make good
decisions, you wanna be theperson that he wants you to be.
You want to feel better.
And not having these things canmake a person cranky, you know,
(39:42):
can make a person not make gooddecisions.
The thine.
I guess there's an ellp thine,but my wife was, was having
trouble sleeping and she doesn'te eat the square meals like she
should.
I'm always,'cause she's alwaysrunning around.
She does a lot more than I do.
You know, she just stays busyand, she wasn't sleeping and she
(40:04):
wasn't head out.
You think?
And she started taking thisL-theanine.
Is that the same thing you werementioning here?
That's it, 100%.
Yep.
That's it.
She started, bought it, thecapsule, and she said, I used to
take this in the past.
So we ordered some and shestarted taking it, started
feeling good again, startedsleeping better, and it, it
really helped her out havingthat in her system.
(40:24):
So I noticed that when I lookedin there, and I just think that
it, the average person goingthrough life, like I said, when
I started, becoming a followerof Jesus, started exercise,
started making good decisions,the more, the better shape I got
into, the better I felt.
The more I started lovingthings.
Like I didn't care about a stakeback then, but now when you see
(40:47):
a stake, I'm sitting therethinking, that's something very
pleasurable.
The, all the things, once Istarted getting in shape and
once I, when I say shape, I'm nounderwear model, but I feel, uh,
I just feel good both of thetime.
So I enjoy it, really enjoythings that I used to not.
Enjoy.
(41:08):
And I, you know, you've spelledit out pretty good there that a
lot of your diet, not just inrecovery, but just in day-to-day
life, eating Well, it's like yousaid, that line of, you know, a
Starbucks in the South is alicense to steal, not just in
the South, but in America.
The line wraps around, you know.
Coming through there and youknow, you're getting your
double, triple latte extra shotof whatever to kind of get you
(41:31):
through the day at, you know,and probably maybe eating
something sweet.
But putting all of these thingsthat you've mentioned into your
body, not just helps inrecovery.
I think it just helps in day today life.
A hundred percent.
100% it, you know, it's justhelpful for like mood and good
functioning and you know,energy, all of those things.
I think with the food, if youlook at.
(41:54):
Some of the, like if you look atthe list of ingredients on the
back of your food, I think agood rule of thumb is if there's
anything on there that's gotmore than two or three
syllables.
Probably avoid if there'sanything on there you can't
pronounce.
Yeah.
Like probably avoid that, youknow?
And if there's anything in therethat's got more than four or
five ingredients, probably avoidthat too.
(42:15):
You know, some people, you know,some people just eat like Whole
Foods, you know, and that'sfantastic.
It's not always that practicalthese days.
But if you look at somethinglike Captain Fun.
You'll often, you'll see ingrit, obviously, there'll be a
huge amounts of preservatives,colorings, e numbers.
You guys have much lessregulation around what goes into
your food, right?
(42:36):
You know, we have the sameproblem over here, but you look
at, you look on the back of likea food stuff, like caps and
crunch, right?
It will say, it'll probably sayfructose, it'll probably say
corn syrup.
It'll probably say glucose andit'll probably say sugar.
It's just all sugar, you knowwhat I mean?
It is just all sugar.
Yeah.
So it like being able toactually like decipher what's in
(42:56):
your food is a really importantthing, and I guarantee you some
of those long.
Words, you know, like you know,the mad kind of chemical, like
seven syllable exaggerating alittle bit, but like substances
you'll see listed in likeprocessed or manufactured food.
(43:16):
Yeah.
Then if you google some of thoseand look at like what that means
and look at the effects it hason the body, I guarantee you
you'll be in for a shock.
I'll guarantee you, you'll befor a shock.
Never, uh, thought it, it wouldhave that kind of impact on
recovery, but that just jumpedout at me when I saw that should
(43:38):
be so crucial that peopleshould, I don't know if it's
taught that much.
No, it is not.
It's certainly not everydaylife.
I can just tell if I've beeneating well.
I feel, well, I'm in a bettermood.
I getting a headache, the crankyor whatever.
I can go back and go look atwhat I ate.
I just went in and ate this,this or I ate the potato and I'm
tired.
So that's great stuff.
(44:00):
I will tell you, uh, I learnedkind of a way,'cause I know
people have trouble in life, youknow, with their.
You know, what they're eatingand how they're eating.
And you, like you mentioned thesteak.
I won't eat a steak five daysduring the week, but I got a, I,
at one point I had ballooned upto 240 pounds Now back in my
(44:20):
drug days and drinking, I hadkind of gotten overweight and it
would go back and forth.
You know, you start injectingheroin that way it's coming off.
'cause you're not gonna eat, butyou know, you're, you're not
looking better.
You're not feeling better.
But when I got married.
As we talked in the lastepisode, when my wife caught the
big fish, um, she landed thatbig one man landed boom.
(44:43):
You know, when, when she steppedin it.
I started, just eating and youknow, just having a good time.
I wasn't exercising or anythingI had, uh, but I ballooned up to
240 pounds.
I weigh up right at about 180pounds.
Right now I'm five foot nine, soyou can imagine 240 pounds.
(45:03):
As a matter of fact, I stillhave the pants'cause they're,
they're like a, a tent, youknow, you could run them up a
flagpole at an airport.
To tell the helicopters, whichway the winds were blowing.
And, I'd have suits that I gotto know the, the tailor very
well.
'cause I kept taking my, thesuit, I had some fairly
expensive suits, so I had tokeep going.
(45:24):
I keep expanding these suits.
But then one day I went out.
And, uh, we're gonna wrap upafter I finish this, but this is
just the way I learned to livelife.
I decided, alright, I've hadenough of this.
I can't even hardly move.
I feel horrible again all thetime.
Um, and I went out to this trackthat I'd jog on.
And I started to walk around andI would run about three miles.
(45:46):
I could get out and tap outabout three miles.
Now I don't run three miles.
I jog.
I mean, the 50-year-old lady,the, kid, little kid can come
passing me, but I would go outthere, work up a sweat and
exercise, but I walked about ahundred, 200 yards.
My back was killing me and Icould barely move.
And I just decided I'm gonnafinish this one lap.
(46:07):
And then I came back the nextday and I did two.
And then I came back the nextday and I did three, and I'm
kind of talking to people outthere that may find themselves
outta shape and you know thatnot getting into it, I just know
how much difference it made inmy life.
Getting in shape, gettingenergy, eating well and
exercising.
Four, I know it.
I was back up to the threemiles.
(46:28):
You know, but then I would kindof fluctuate a little bit
because you would get on thekick where I would eat well and
then not eat well.
Well, I settled in, I read thisbook called Body for Life by a
guy named Bill Phillips, uh,years ago.
And I'm not suggesting that'cause it was into lifting and
eating just a, you know, thesespecific things and if you're
really trying to muscle, Iwasn't trying to do all that,
(46:49):
but it really settled me intothe theory behind this was you
ate, well, you exercised, youdid that six days a week and
then you had to cheat day peopleTalk about that.
You talked about you, you saidyou had.
Had weight problems at onepoint, right?
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, for a long time.
Up and down, up and down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But well, what mine was, uh, andit's not just the cheat day,
(47:11):
that's just a little two ridges.
I kinda live my life in kind ofa, you had mentioned peaks
before.
I still like the peaks.
It's just I get different.
My peaks, uh, different thingsbring me the peak.
So I will go four or five days.
You know, as a comedian, I'mFriday and Saturdays, a lot of
times I'm traveling or whatever,and I don't eat a lot while I'm
out there, but to the averageperson that does that five day
(47:35):
week and then does the weekend,the point is if you take about
four or five days out of theweek.
That's the day you exercise,that's the day.
You eat well.
'cause people wanna live.
I mean, I'm holding my hand upflat.
People a lot of times they don'twant to, they don't wanna get in
the valleys.
But if you don't get in thevalleys, you're not gonna get up
into the peaks.
And what I mean by that is go tothe restaurants and where I live
(47:58):
or where you live and they'repacked.
People are in there eating bigmeals for lunch.
They just, they're constantly, Iguess maybe wanting the pleasure
of, of eating, but.
You know, you're gonna beoverweight, you're gonna be
tired when you get to theweekend.
It's not that big a deal.
What I way I do it is there'sfour or five days.
I'm just not gonna, I'm notgonna spend a lot of money on
food.
(48:18):
I'm not gonna spend a, I'm notgonna eat a lot of calories.
I'm just gonna focus on eatingwell.
But when I get to the weekendnow, like a Friday or a
Saturday, Saturday, I'll eatwhatever I want.
I will destroy, you know, ifyou, if we're getting pizza at
my house, I'm getting mine.
My wife's getting mine becauseI'm eating the whole thing.
If we're getting, if we'regetting fried chicken, cheese,
(48:40):
getting the chicken, I'm gettingit and I'm eating it.
The point is, I don't denymyself that.
I'm gonna have it.
I'll sit there on a Wednesdaynight going, oh yeah, we're,
we're gonna cook some ribs thisweekend.
But I don't eat'em.
I'm not just constantly eatingstuff to make my, you know, you
see what I'm saying?
That would keep me outta shape.
Yeah.
So that's just something I justwanted to throw out there.
That's really worked for me.
'cause I know people that havestruggled with getting in
(49:01):
shaping when you're feelingbetter, you know, you and I
talked about it in an earlier,uh.
Uh, earlier conversation howmuch better you're looking and
feeling.
And I didn't even notice you'dhad, you know, you'd been losing
some weight, but don't you feelmu much better?
You feel a, a walk, you know, inthe park is far more enjoyable
than it was when you'restruggling and you're tired all
(49:22):
the time.
But that's kind of what workedfor me.
I, I just kind of, um.
It's not denying myself.
I live a certain way when I'mdoing things, and then I have
those couple days and I'm gonnaenjoy myself, and then I'll eat
whatever I want to eat and I'llenjoy it.
And the the funny thing is, ison that third day, you go Friday
night, eating whatever you want,or Saturday you wake up on
(49:42):
Sunday, you don't wanna eat thegarbage anymore.
Not the garbage, but you wannago back to feeling the way I
felt before I shoved that wholepizza in my mouth.
Balance, pat.
It's all about balance.
Yeah.
I think that's a good, you know,we don't have to live rigidly,
but you know, you can have somebalance, you know, and that's
what I get from what you'resaying.
I think it's good advice for thepeople listening.
(50:04):
Well, yeah, and the peaks.
I still have the peaks that Ihave now are far, far higher
than the peaks I had when, whenI was doing it, with the
deception of the cocaine and thedrugs and those type of things.
But that's fantastic informationthat you gave Richard.
Uh, and we'll wrap it there, notjust for people in recovery, but
I think it's really important,for people that are in recovery,
(50:26):
especially in the first steps.
Put good stuff in your body andmaking yourself, feel good and.
Google and research you'resaying you can find those things
in food, you can find them inwhat you're eating.
And protein is, IM, isimportant.
You see, I learned somethingthat I did not know when I read
that post so well, greatinformation there, rich, and,
(50:47):
we're gonna leave it there.
And good talking to you.
And then I will catch up withyou next week and I think next
week you had another, anotherpost you had on here about inner
child.
I used to not like the wordinner child, but it is something
that I always thought thatsomething that.
From your childhood.
You carry an awful lot of thingsfrom your childhood, and I think
(51:09):
you're delving into that andthat's something that I've
always kinda looked into.
So I think that will be, a greatdiscussion.
So anyway, appreciate all yourgreat information, rich and I
will see you next week.
See you next week, pat.
Take care.
Bye.
Take care.
Good morning, rich.
Uh, good off.
Good morning, pat.
Good afternoon, rich.
Yeah.
Morning to me.
Morning to you.
Afternoon to you.
Unless the world startedspinning in the wrong direction
there, who knows, man, thesedays anything could happen.
(00:44):
You never know, man.
You just, you wake up and you gowith Yeah.
That, I noticed, about a yearago, they had, uh, things have
gotten so crazy that, in theUnited States Congress, they,
they had, the congressmen, theyall got together and they had
this meeting.
Uh, this hearing where theypretty much admitted that aliens
existed, and everybody was justkinda like, what are we having
(01:05):
for lunch?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, no one believes anythinganymore.
You know what's everything?
No one believes anythinganymore.
Everything's fake news.
Is that what it is?
Yeah.
It was just like we, we werejust like, yeah.
So what I, I don't think they'reinterested.
I think they came, landed andboom.
Yeah.
You guys, you guys are nuts.
Like, yeah.
(01:27):
Like there's nothing worthinvading here or engaging with
like you guys are, Matt, I thinkthat just came.
No, we're not getting in themiddle of this.
Yes.
Yeah, ahead now.
So how are things in themotherland, today?
Yeah.
Doing okay, pat?
Yeah, it's, uh, kind of cloudy,gray, coolish days, so another
(01:50):
glorious, uh, Britishsummertime.
Oh, actually it's been quite anice summer, but yeah, it's a
bit cooler today, which isn'tthe end of the world.
Um, I've been out doing a bit ofwork and, um, and now I'm home
and get to talk to you and talkabout Jesus and addiction
recovery.
So everything's good in, in myworld, mate, what about you?
Um, well,, to paraphrase, of oneof your, famous, great
(02:14):
countrymen, Charles Dickens.
It's the best of times and it'sthe worst of times.
We are at the end of summer.
You know how hot it gets here inthe summertime.
Okay.
And we love the summer.
We love the beaches, we love thewater.
We love going out, you know, welove the, the lush, the
greenery.
We don't even mind the heatuntil we get to the end of
(02:35):
August.
Then we're thick of it and it'slike 97 degrees Fahrenheit, and,
you know, falls right around thecorner.
But.
That's the best of times becausewe've got the fall coming up
football season, or as we sayhere in the south football, the
ball.
(02:56):
So we're all looking forward toit.
So we're right here on theprecipice.
So we got the, the best of timesfall's the best of time of year
for me, but the worst is righthere at the end of August.
And one of the things that makesit the worst, not just the heat,
but now we have this last littlecouple weeks of hurricane season
and you guys don't get toexperience that, do you?
Uh, we had a hurricane, likeliterally, this isn't even a
(03:16):
joke.
We had a hurricane in 1987.
People still talk about it nowstraight up.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Well, the thing about hurricaneseason, this actually kind of
tests, our Christianity or our,our paying Jesus.
Because here's what happens, thehurricane, you start pay, you
pay attention to'em at this timeof year.
(03:37):
They form off the coast ofAfrica.
And so you hear, oh, there's aninves.
There's a system that'sdeveloping out there.
So we start watching.
It's a couple weeks away, butwhat we're hoping is.
If you live in the Gulf, if youlive inside the Gulf, if you
like Florida, uh, Alabama,Mississippi, Louisiana, all the
way around the Texas, the firstthing we're thinking is, please
(04:00):
God, let it go.
Hit the east coast.
So we just, we want it to take aright turn, you know, just
subconsciously not even reallythink.
You know, and it's, so, it'sgonna hit the, we want it to
move out.
Like we have one right now,Aaron.
It formed my first reaction.
Oh, let that thing go north.
Well, you're not thinkingthere's somebody out there.
Let it go hit Bermuda.
(04:21):
Uh, you know, they turn up northif it comes into the gulf.
Then we're on watch and we startthinking, let it go straight.
Let it hit Mexico.
It's not us.
I mean, I know that's not right,but that's our thinking.
Then if it starts turning north,we start, if you live where I
live in Mississippi,'cause we'vebeen through some very horrible
(04:41):
hurricanes.
I mean it's, it was like a bombhad dropped here, power off and
you kind of get bombed back tothe stone age.
But then we start hoping it hitsour neighbors.
It's not what we're, you know,we're really not wanting to hit
us, but, oh man, I hope thatthing, oh, maybe it'll go to
Houston.
If it starts turning to theright, well, maybe it'll go hit
Tampa, and then we get, then weget, oh, it looked like it's
(05:04):
going towards Tampa.
And then what is the first thingwe do?
We, we all start thinking, oh,well y'all pray with, let's pray
for the people in Tampa.
So, so now we're ready to prayfor the people that we've been
hoping.
We're gonna get hit by thathurricane instead of us.
And I got to thinking, it's kindof like, the Bible verse when
(05:26):
they ask, I think it was, uh,Matthew 34.
Well, when the Pharisees askJesus, I think maybe Matthew 36
40 possible.
Let's have a little look.
Matthew 36.
Matthew only goes up to 28,dude.
(05:48):
Well then that's not it.
It's 30.
I know it's 36, 30, 36, 40, butthe verse is the Pharisee Ask
Jesus teacher.
He's kind of trying to test him.
He says.
What are the most importantcommandments?
So if you Google that.
(06:08):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm looking what bit of theBible does the Pharisee ask?
Jesus, what is the mostimportant for moments?
Have a little look, pat Matthew22, 32, 34 to 40.
(06:31):
So you were close, pat, let'shave a little, not really that
close.
Well, you had the verses.
Yeah.
You just didn't have thechapter.
So I think give, give yourself alittle bit of credit.
Pat.
Yeah, A little bit.
Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah.
I'm not the bible scholar, butwhat he says is the first, the
most important, tell me if I'mreading, if I'm getting this
right, is to love the Lord thyGod with all your heart.
(06:56):
That's the greatest, right?
But then he says the second one,and this one is something I
don't think people really pay alot, that pay a lot of attention
to what he may have beenmeaning.
Then he says, and see if I getthis right.
Love thy neighbor as you loveyourself, or love thy neighbor
as I have loved you.
(07:18):
Am I close?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
All the law and the prophetshang on these two commandments.
Right?
So to me, and I just startedthinking about that.
To me, he has given us acommandment that is virtually
impossible to live up to.
'cause I don't know anybody thatdoes that.
(07:39):
You may do that.
Uh.
I every day get up and I'mtrying to follow Jesus.
I'm trying to do what I'msupposed to do but who does?
I just wonder sometimes if hedidn't give us a commandment
that he knew we could nevermeasure up to.
Just letting us know that, yourgrace, your salvation is not
about you fulfillingcommandments.
(08:00):
It's through my blood that Ished for you, but this is what
you should aspire to.
Yes.
I was wondering what yourthoughts on that, because I
don't do that.
I'm not saying I shouldn't dothat, but just like the
hurricanes, I noticed the otherday, I'm like, I am literally
first I'm hoping this thing goesover here.
I'm hoping it goes over here,but it goes into everything else
in life, you know, is, well,it's like.
(08:24):
That's the point of grace, isn'tit?
For me, like as I understand it,it's like, look, Jesus was the
only one that could like fulfillthe law.
You know?
I came to fulfill the law.
Right?
So he was the only one thatcould, like, he was the only one
among us that was perfect.
Right?
He was the only one among usthat was like without sin.
So that's why he came, right?
(08:46):
Because like no one else, no onecould live up to the law.
So he came, paid the price forour sins.
But then what he does is hemakes some strong, very strong
suggestions about how we should,we should try and live.
You know, I like really like, sothe book that really turned it
around for me in my faith walkwas the Muff in Gospel by
Brennan Manning And Manningtalks about this extensively,
(09:07):
right?
He's like, you are gonna get itwrong.
Like, that's the point.
That's why he came.
You know, but Christianity andbeing a follower of Jesus Christ
is not about an enforcedmorality, but what it's about is
like if you allowed a spirit towork through you, then you will
be more equipped to like to livelike that, right?
(09:28):
If the spirit's within you.
Right.
But because obviously we havethe flesh and.
Like our, our humanity willnever get it right all the time.
And that's why we need a saviorwithout our, and I think he
talks, he kind of talks aboutthis in Romans, right?
Paul talks about this in Romans,but it's like, it's that
fallibility that meant we need asavior.
(09:49):
Because if it, if we didn't havethat, we wouldn't have needed a
savior.
So the whole thing.
Completes itself in that regard,right?
It's like, yeah, like it's'causeof our imperfection that we
need, that we needed Jesus inthe first place and that's why
he came.
But then he tells us that weshould try and live and then we
do our best to kind of live upto that, you know, and that, but
knowing that we'll always fail,like knowing that we'll always
fail at some point, becausethat's the whole point.
(10:12):
And that's why he came, youknow?
That's kinda what I wasthinking.
That's an excellent way ofexplaining.
'cause that's what I wasthinking.
He's done two things there.
He's given you something toaspire to and the Holy Spirit
does remind me.
I mean, I say it jokingly about,Hey, we want this to go hit
Houston, or we hope it goes inthis direction, but it does.
That's what it dawned on me theother day.
It's like you're literallysitting there thinking, uh,
(10:35):
you're gonna be happy if it'sgonna hit the city or this town,
and so when there are things,when I'm not living up to that,
when I'm not loving that and theneighbor means everybody, when
I'm not doing that, a voice goesoff in my head.
So I think you're exactly right.
He's describing that here'ssomething to aspire to.
You should shoot for that, butyou're not going to hit it.
(10:59):
That's why I came.
So what you said was brilliantthere.
So, speaking of your brilliance,our episode a couple of weeks
ago on overcoming when, you weretalking about the first step, I
got some comments.
About that, that helps somepeople, that are going through
recovery, beginning recovery,and oh, and by the way, if
anybody, to our listeners,whatever platform you're on,
(11:23):
there is a send a text button onmost of the platforms.
If you have a comment like thesefolks have.
You have a question?
I mean, if you have anything, ifyou're, if you know Jesus, if
you don't know Jesus, if it'ssomething about aic, what?
Addiction, loneliness, anythingthat we like to give you some
advice or discuss, send acomment and, we're able to, we
(11:46):
will discuss it on here.
If you don't have that on theplatform or you're on YouTube,
you can go to pat mccool.com,send me an email.
Because we just have a passionto, help people out.
And we have an awful lot ofexperience in being able to do
it because we both did it wrongthe first way.
And that's how I've learned.
That's how I've learned.
(12:07):
So, so feel free to send in acomment, send in an email like
these folks did, and, we wouldtry.
We won't mention your name ifyou don't want to, but we'd be
certainly willing to discuss anddo whatever we can in a
discussion.
But this post that you made thatI thought was really important.
Can I read the, it's a LinkedInpost.
Yeah, go for it, pat.
(12:28):
For Richard, and this appliesnot just to addiction, but I
think it's very, it is veryimportant that people that are
going through recovery, butwe'll do this and then you can,
elaborate on it.
It says, we wouldn't try tobuild a house without raw
materials, so why do we expectthe brain to function without
them?
Therapy, especially with clientsin early recovery or those
(12:51):
struggling with mood, compulsivebehaviors or burnout.
I'm increasingly drawn to thequestion, what's the system
being asked to run on?
We often talk about trauma,attachment, psychological
patterns, all vital, but thebiochemical foundations math.
There are two brains that areundernourished, inflamed, or
depleted.
(13:11):
Simply don't have the capacityfor the kind of regulation and
reflection that recoverydemands.
A few basics.
I always come back to protein.
It's non-negotiable.
It provides the building blocks,amino acids for dopamine,
serotonin, GA a, b, a and more.
Without enough high qualityprotein, many clients are stuck
(13:32):
chasing motivation or mood thatisn't coming back because the
raw ingredients just aren'tthere.
Omega threes, especiallyE-P-A-D-H-A from fish oil, help
with inflammation, mood andbrain repair.
Some studies even suggest theysupport impulse control.
And reduce aggression.
I've seen real changes inclients when this is added
(13:54):
consistently amino acids like,like L tyrosine.
I might be pronouncing thatwrong.
No, that's right.
H-T-P-D-L-P-A and thine can begame changers.
And you've put in asterisk.
When used carefully, they helpreplenish the neurotransmitters
flattened by years ofsubstances, stress or
(14:15):
restriction.
But they're not one size fitsall, and they work best when
used alongside professionalsupport nutrition alone.
Won't heal trauma or rebuildtrust in relationships.
But I've seen time and again,how stabilizing the body can
give clients just enoughbandwidth to start engaging with
therapy from a place ofstrength, not survival.
(14:36):
We need to keep expanding theway we think about recovery.
Food, mood, and mood andbehavior are linked and we
ignore it that at our peril.
Yes, that's brilliant.
And something that I didn'treally think about.
Well, that's the whole point ofit, pat, really is that like not
many people do, right?
(14:58):
So we know that, you know,addiction therapy is helpful,
right?
Like 12 step programs helpful.
Yeah.
Like there's lots of good stuffthat can and does happen in
those like that kind ofpsychological social approach,
right?
There's obviously strong.
Like spiritual element and whatthat means to different people
(15:21):
is different things, but youknow, to us that's Jesus.
Right.
Um, and that is of course, likea, you know, a vital, you know,
the biggest component for manyYeah.
That get to be touched in thatway.
Um, but there's this whole like,biological component that just
gets missed.
Right.
And, um, it's the, the buildingblocks of.
(15:44):
Neurotransmitters, you know,it's what we put in our body.
So you can explain addictionfrom like a purely like
neurological standpoint.
You know, we're talking aboutdepleted neurotransmitters.
We're talking about like abehavior that's, um, that's
driven and governed by themidbrain, the limbic system that
overwhelms logic, you know,emotions, trump logic every
(16:07):
time, and that's why people endup doing things.
Being driven towards doingthings, which then even to them
later on, make no sense.
You know, so you'll hear therelapse.
The guy that's just, you know,used a shed load of cocaine or,
you know, been on a big, likealcohol binge and like, you
know, woken up and like, youknow, what have I done?
(16:29):
Why did I do that?
You know, look at the, you know,the harm, the pain, of course,
myself and others, once again.
And it doesn't make any sense.
But then if you look at thatfrom a neurological standpoint,
it's like a brain that's likecrying out for, you know,
whatever it might be forsomething that it's learned,
(16:49):
makes it feel a bit better.
Right.
Like it's very difficult forthat brain to heal if you're not
giving it the things that helpit heal, you know?
So you need to be fueling thebrain, giving the brain what it
needs to repair and to like, andto run like properly, you know,
like to, you know, to allowwhat's called like executive
(17:10):
functioning.
So that's like the decisionmaking, you know, to be able to
make good decisions.
You know, like I want to have adrink.
Maybe what I should do is callsomeone.
Maybe what I should do is pray.
Maybe what I should do is go toa meeting.
Maybe what I should do iscontact my therapist.
You know?
But like that's, that all goesoffline in a brain that's just
not able to function properly.
(17:30):
'cause it doesn't have thebuilding blocks of that.
Yeah, that makes, I go all theway back to the days when I was,
doing the drugs, the drinkingall the time.
I felt horrible all the time.
So you got up and you, you know,it, one thing led to the other.
I felt horrible.
So instead of doing the thingsthat would make me feel better
(17:53):
internally, it's, you know, it'stime to go do the drugs, time to
go do the drink instead ofmaking yourself feel better.
I mean, doing things that willactually make you feel better
and the better you feel, thebetter decision making.
Is that part of what you'resaying there?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's, it's difficult to makehealthy decisions if your
(18:13):
brain's not working properly,you know?
So what you end up doing is youchase the thing that will, for a
short time, make you feel betterlike cocaine.
So you in, you injected cocaine,right?
I remember that from your book.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that is like this hugedopamine dump.
Right.
Like, you know, like, you know,many, many, many, many times
greater than like a normal,like, do mean reg, you know, it
(18:34):
governs behavior.
It's the re the rewardneurotransmitter.
It drives us towards things thatmake us feel good.
But for most people, that mightbe like a stake.
Yeah.
Like, you know, like a night,you know, walking by a river,
you know, whatever.
Like some, you know, like anormal human thing, but then you
hit, you hit.
With like something thatreleases that much dopamine and
(18:56):
then you have a crash, right?
So if you are not giving thebrain enough, enough fuel to
make a healthy level ofdopamine, you know, then you'll
automatically be drawn back tothe thing that offers some hope
of like you rekindling thatlevel of dopamine again, right?
(19:17):
So, so that's like injectingmore cocaine, you know?
And that's why eventually.
You'll get to the point wherethe cocaine doesn't do what it
did.
That's why people are alwayschasing that first high pat.
Yeah, because that first hugedump of dopamine is the first
time you experienced that.
Like, I mean, it's amazing,right?
(19:38):
You know, like I was a cracksmoker, right?
The first time I smoked crack Iwas just like, you know, it was
like just this almost like brandinden experience, right?
But so you'll always be tastingthat.
Until you give the brain thestuff that it makes just to like
start generating enough dopaminein a healthy fashion, you'll
keep, you know, you'll keepchasing that.
(19:58):
And then the other side to thatis that like if you don't give
the brain what it needs throughthe food, in fact you give it
what it doesn't need.
So what we see in earlyrecovery, and this becomes
normalized somewhat, is peopleare chasing the things that are
like less aversions of thecocaine sugar.
(20:20):
Like nicotine, caffeine, so theyfill themselves up with that.
We see that a lot.
You know, like you go to an AAmeeting, there'll be a lot of
people smoking outside.
Yeah.
You go to like, I dunno, someother kind of convention, like,
I dunno, a car sales personconvention.
You won't see that many peoplesmoking outside.
So like covering addicts,they're chasing all these things
(20:42):
to try and like get some versionof that, like dopamine hit.
But it's like a dirty dopaminehit and it keeps those addictive
circuits alive, you know?
And that's like, you know,relapse is linked to that.
You know, relapse is linked tothat.
So you start giving your brainenough fuel to make enough
dopamine and what you'll see ispeople, rather than like forcing
(21:06):
themselves to stop drinkingcaffeine, even sugar or, or to
smoke a bit less, smoking's alittle bit more complicated, but
like they will be naturally lessdrawn towards.
Because their brain is notsomewhere behind the scenes
saying, we need that.
We need that.
We need that.
We need that.
We need that.
We need to get something that'sgonna get some dopamine going
here, man.
(21:26):
We need to, you know, becauseit's got enough, it's got what
it needs to like be doing thaton its own, you know, given it
what it needs.
You the nail on the head whenthe, the ejecting of the
cocaine?
Uh, you know, I mentioned Iwasn't physically, I was
emotionally, but maybe I wasphysically, but when I ejected
that cocaine, like you said,that was, I mean, that was an
(21:51):
experience.
I, right then I was thinking,how can I go the rest of my life
feeling like this?
Because this is it, and it, andI never felt that way again.
It, you could have turned rightaround the next day and gotten a
better quality where you chaseit, you're always chasing that,
having that very fir I don'tknow if heroin was like that.
(22:11):
Uh, but I, I never got thatagain.
I just kept chasing it and keptchasing it.
And you're talking about, I keptmaking one bad decision.
They kept getting worse andworse.
And as far as.
Nutrition.
I wasn't really eating at all.
I didn't even really care.
You would just eat, you know,just something just to maybe at
one o'clock in the morning ortwo o'clock, you didn't really
think about it.
(22:32):
All you were really thinking wastrying to get that next hit or
get back to that feeling again.
So your mind, I guess, is, isprogrammed.
So I think that's greatinformation that you're saying
the food staying nutritiousbecause.
Once I, you know, once Istarted, once I became a
(22:53):
believer, started getting my acttogether, you know, which we're,
we're not gonna rehash that, youknow, we've talked about it or
it's in the book.
Um, I started exercising'cause Iwas, had gotten outta shape and
so I started exercising and allof a sudden I started feeling
better.
I started going out and jogging.
(23:13):
I started running.
I started, um.
You know, lifting weights alittle bit and then I just
started feeling better andbetter.
And then it was a high to go outand exercise and sweat and then
come in, and then less and less,you're wanting those bad things.
You're talking about the steak,for example.
(23:35):
Right now, the thought of eatinga steak is, is very thrilling to
me.
I mean, you know, it really is.
I get excited about it, youknow, I'm just like, oh, I got
back then you didn't care.
So, uh, all those normal, thethings that would otherwise give
you great pleasure in life arecompletely gone.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly that.
Right?
So it's like I, I liken it tothis.
(23:56):
I explain it to the people Iwork with like this, right?
It's like if you live on arollercoaster with all of its
highs and lows, imagine youlived on a rollercoaster for
four years.
Yeah.
Like when you get off thatrollercoaster, right?
Like walking around theamusement park at a leisure
pace, it's gonna be pretty dull.
Yeah.
Like it's not gonna be a lot offun.
(24:18):
Right.
It takes time to get used to.
Not being on that rollercoaster,it takes a lot of time to start
to be able to rest a little bitof pleasure from normal,
pleasurable things, right?
So it's like, and you have toallow, that's a lot often.
There's like a very gray periodafter people clean up.
You know, it's like nothing.
(24:39):
What do you wanna do?
Nothing.
Do you know what I mean?
Like nothing.
Like nothing really offers youmuch pleasure and it takes time
for that to reset.
It could take 60 days, it couldtake six months.
It depends how much you've beenhitting it, but the help the
brain to start functioningproperly, to help it rebuild, to
start it help to be able togenerate enough.
(25:01):
Neurotransmitters to promote abit of functioning and to start
to enjoy life again.
You know, it, you know, givingit the right fuel is essential.
So it's like protein 80 to 120grams a day.
Split that into four doses.
Yeah.
So like breakfast, you know,lunch, afternoon, snack and
dinner.
Yeah, a lot of protein.
Well, it is and it isn't right.
(25:23):
Like it is, and it isn't, youknow, it's actually not that,
you know, if a, a chicken breasthas, say a good sized chicken
breast might be like 80, uh,excuse me, it might be 20.
Right.
Like four chicken.
Yeah.
Four chicken breast a day.
Like four protein bars a day.
Yeah.
Although you're better offeating like natural foods.
Right.
But so like protein, healthyfats, you know, like fatty fish.
(25:47):
Yeah.
Lots of greens, complex carbs.
So you don't get that, you know,spike and crash in the blood
sugar.
Yeah, blood sugar's important aswell, you know, and that thing
you can use, use like goodquality Omega-3 fish oil.
Yeah, that's, that's helpful.
Yeah, that really helps thebrain start kind of firing
again.
And, um, you know, I've, I'veworked with guys that free fish
(26:09):
oil.
Yeah.
So you're looking for somethingwith the kind of, um, a good
amount of EHE and DEHA and DPAin it.
Um, yeah.
And take, like taking that onthe daily.
Um, so the supplements not justthe food.
'cause I remember I used to takea, an omega, uh, it was like a
(26:29):
gold Omega-3, I guess it was.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You, you think that's good too?
What about a, like a proteinsupplement if you, if you're not
eating, not a proteinsupplement, but like a powdered
shake or something like that?
Yeah, look, they're a reallygood thing to fall back on.
I often talk to people aboutusing those things, um, as like
a breakfast food.
(26:50):
So like traditionally bread,like it's quite hard to find
things that are full of proteinfor breakfast, unless you're
talking like sausages and baconand you know, like eggs.
They say eggs.
Eggs are really good.
But like, you know, most people,busy lives who are on the go,
you know, like sometimes people,they're not gonna scramble some
eggs every morning.
(27:10):
Right.
You know, they're not gonna frysome eggs every morning.
So what you would need to helppeople avoid is like people
would have.
I mean, in your country, likepeople eat donuts for breakfast,
right?
That's like, that's likeprobably the worst thing you can
eat for breakfast, for mentalhealth.
But over here, like we would eatlike croissants.
So you'd have a bowl of cereal.
(27:32):
There's no, I mean, there's abit of protein in the milk, but
not much, right?
So like protein shakes in themorning can't be helpful.
Handful of nuts for your likehealthy fats.
A little bit of protein.
A decent amount of protein innuts.
Yeah, just what, whatever,however you get it into, you,
get it into you.
If you're gonna have scrambledeggs on toast, like have a good
quality, kind of like a dark ryebread with like pump and nickel,
(27:55):
you know, like that's somethinglike substantial like that.
Yeah.
And like, just so you, withthat, you're giving yourself,
you, you got some, some goodquality fats in the, in the alk.
Yeah, you've got lots ofprotein, egg white, you've got
some complex carbohydrates, youknow, in this kind of good
quality heavy bread.
Right?
That's a good setup for the day.
(28:17):
You know, eating a bowl ofCaptain Crunch and.
A donut is not, you know, that'slike the opposite of what you
need for breakfast, you know,but like, so you, you know, it's
helping people find ways andhelping people to find ways for
work that work for them as well.
Um, yeah, makes a lot of sense.
'cause I've noticed, if I don'teat like a pipe, you know, a lot
(28:40):
of protein early in the day, Ijust get tired and I get really,
if I eat a lot of carbs.
I mean, I like, I like potatoesand things like that, but if I
eat a lot of carbs, I'm crashingand I'm getting tired.
Even if I'm just sitting around,doing something and I'm one of
those that I'm not hungry in themorning, I'm not that hungry.
I'm not gonna sit down and eatone of those, put me into a coma
(29:01):
breakfast.
You know, sausage eggs that justthe thought of that makes me
just want to go lay down and goto sleep.
So I start every day with a,like a make my own fruit
smoothie.
I just put fruit in blenderfruit with some low fat yogurt.
Um, but I guess you could put ascope of, throw a scoop of
protein in there, just like 10%,man.
Yeah.
To throw that in there.
(29:21):
Yeah.
Next thing you know what fruit'sgood, but fruit's got a lot of
sugar in it.
And even though it's naturallyoccurring sugar, you know,
that's still like blood sugarspike and crash.
Oh, so does it really?
Yeah, so like I, I would say,you know, like throwing some
protein powder in there ishelpful.
You know, definitely throwingsome protein powder in there
would be a good idea.
(29:42):
So even with the fruit, evenwith the fruit, it has the sugar
that's going to spike you.
And then you have somewhat of acrash there.
Yeah.
And as how I understand it now,look, I'm not an expert in this
stuff, but I've done a, a bit oftraining, you know, and I, I,
I've seen, you know, some greatresults applying it in my
practice.
But when you blend it all, yeah.
Like, rather than the body, youknow, needing to break it down.
(30:07):
Which slows the release into thebloodstream of those sugars.
When you blend it all, it just,it just hits you, you know?
It's like boom.
'cause it's already broken down.
So that, that's another thing toconsider.
If you are gonna eat fruit inthe morning, fruit's obviously a
good thing, but maybe like eatit rather than drink it.
(30:27):
That could be helpful as well.
Um, yeah, blend, freeze it.
You know, I put a bunch ofbananas, strawberries, yogurt,
some milk, apple juice, blend itup and just drink it.
Other than that, I'm not thathungry in the morning.
I'm not gonna sit down and I'mnot going to.
I'm not gonna just pile in a bigbreakfast, but what you're
(30:48):
saying is making yourself feelgood is, makes it a lot easier
to re resist temptations to thethings that are gonna make you.
Relapse or it's going or it'sgonna make you make a lot better
decisions.
Yeah.
And it's like, look, there'sthis idea that early recovery,
you know, early sobriety issupposed to be really hard.
(31:10):
Yeah.
You're supposed to have a lowmood, like it's supposed to be
agra, what we would call agraft, like a slog, you know,
like a difficult endeavor,right.
That, you know, you'reessentially, you're gonna
suffer.
Right.
And there is some truth in that,regardless of what you do, you
know, cleaning up, gettingsober, it's not the easiest
thing in the world.
'cause you know, often, like youkind of come, it's almost like
(31:31):
you come to right after, likehaving been in a coma or like a
trance or being possessed, youknow, for like however many
months or years.
Right.
But, um, if you give your bodywhat it needs to start to, you
know, to start to help the brainto regenerate and repair itself,
right, it makes it a lot easier.
It makes it a lot easier forsure.
(31:53):
I said when I, uh.
Started, you know, getting myact together as I started, you
know, becoming a believer.
But I'd started making thesegood choices and I started
enjoying things that I didn'tenjoy before.
I enjoyed going out and gettinga sweating walk.
I enjoyed exercising.
I enjoyed kind of e eating well,and so I was in a much better,
(32:15):
the point is I just startedbecoming happier, not just
because I was getting the HolySpirit and joy in my life.
That was the most, that was themost important thing, but
physically.
I was starting to enjoy thingsthat I'd never enjoyed before.
I was like, look, I feel a lotbetter doing this.
I don't, you know, I don't feelsick and tired all the time.
So then life itself startsbecoming a much more enjoyable
(32:36):
experience.
So, well, yeah, having seen yourstory, obviously I've read your
story Pat, right, and um, uh,eat.
Your life was a rollercoaster.
Right?
Right.
You there was a lot of recklessbehavior, a lot of adventures, a
lot of highs and lows.
Yeah.
A lot of, you know, like carcrash, you know, flying through
the air in a car, landing upsidedown, you know, all that kinda
(32:58):
stuff, right?
Lots and lots of spikes.
And then you introduce the drugsto that, and even bigger spikes,
right?
So yeah, like getting accustomedto doing healthy things, getting
off the rollercoaster.
It's a process, but it's, youknow, if you stick with it, it,
it, you know, it gets better andit, it, it, you know, it gets a
lot better.
Yeah.
Um, I guess the other thing totalk about as well, you know, as
(33:19):
I mentioned at the end of thatpost that you, you can't leave
it out, is the supplementation.
So tyrosine just a little bit onthat.
Tyrosine is a, uh, a dopamineprecursor.
So that is, that is the, the,the protein, the amino acid.
Amino acid and protein is, isprotein.
(33:39):
Like tyrosine is the exact typeof protein that your brain needs
to generate dopamine.
So like I, I've worked with guyswho they're constantly
preoccupied with thoughts oftheir addiction.
You know, they, they may havebeen sober for some time.
Constantly preoccupied.
Right.
(34:00):
Uh, they drink a lot ofcaffeine.
They vape a lot.
You know, they, they, they eat alot of sugary food.
Yeah.
Now all of that is the brainsaying, screaming out.
For more dopamine.
Yeah, like screaming out for it,right?
'cause the levels are so low.
So you take these kind of dirtydopamine hits, right?
(34:20):
So like just to try it, youknow, it's the brain's best
effort based on what it knows atthat point to try and get some
more dopamine.
If you give it the fuel it needsto make enough dopamine, people
will naturally find themselvesless drawn towards those things
in a way that's quite intuitive.
You know, it's not like.
It's not like a a, what wouldyou call it?
(34:41):
Like an immense effort of will,you know, I must stop.
I need to not, it's likeactually, like I don't fancy, I
don't fancy getting a donut inthe afternoon.
I don't feel like that, youknow, actually, I don't think, I
don't think I'm gonna, you know,like reaching for the vape,
actually.
I don't, I don't wanna vape.
You know, it's like that sort ofthing.
So Ty's team's good for that.
(35:02):
Just run through these quickly,pat, for the listeners.
Five HTP, serotonin.
So a lot of kind of like anxietyand obsessive thoughts and sort
of like, um, low mood, uh, willoften be linked to a shortfall
in serotonin.
So you give your, you know, youintroduce some five HTP that
helps your brain to make somemore serotonin.
(35:26):
DLPA, that's about endorphins.
If you're low in endorphins,endorphins are kinda like the
warm and fuzzies, you know,like.
So messed those up.
You, you, you messed those upwhen you're doing a lot of drugs
and Oh, yeah, man, that stuff'sall over the place, you know,
all over the place.
You know.
Um, I mean like, just I guess abit of information that's
useful.
It's like, it isn't cocaine thatmakes you feel good.
(35:49):
It's what cocaine gets the brainto do.
You know, what cocaine does isit makes the brain release huge
amounts of dopamine, you know?
So like cocaine in of itselfdoesn't actually make you feel
good, but it's what it does tothe brain.
You know, like everything we dois governed by
neurotransmitters, everything,our decisions around food, our
decisions around sex, ourdecision around drugs, our
(36:09):
decisions around alcohol, ourdecisions about, you know, are
we gonna go left?
We're gonna walk out a door.
Am I gonna go left or right?
It's all governed byneurotransmitters, you know?
Um, so it helping your brain getto some sort of like stability
is a really good thing, youknow?
So if you are, go on Pat.
(36:30):
Sorry.
No, you go.
But like, if you are a guy or agirl and you're in early
recovery and you're, you know,you're drinking like seven cups
of coffee in the morning, youknow, and then vaping all day,
and then, you know, you want tohit like a load of sugar.
You get in, in the eveningsafter your meeting, and the only
thing you can think about ishitting a load of kinda sugary
food, you know, candy, donuts,you know, whatever.
(36:51):
Yeah.
Then you might want to, youmight wanna have a look at this.
Yeah.
You might wanna have a look atthis.
Yeah.
Before you, you finished, youwere theanine, you have theanine
listed.
You listed the first off.
Where do you get, uh, where doyou get the, uh, tyrosine?
Oh, go to CVS go to Walgreens,you know, in this country.
(37:12):
Um, you, the best place I wouldsay to get it in this country
would be to go to, um, would beto go on Amazon.
Yeah, but be careful'causethere's a lot that you have to
check the reviews on Amazon.
There's a website called iHub.
Um, that's good.
Um, the food, yeah.
It's not just something you getin food, it's better taking in a
(37:36):
supplement or is there a way toget in food?
The tyrosine, if you've got areally good diet, you can give
your body everything it needs todo this.
However, if you've got a seriousdepletion Yeah.
If your brain is really likestarving and crying out for
these things, using somesupplements is a good idea.
Yeah.
Um, like the supplements are.
(37:56):
They're a bit of a shortcut.
You know, they are a bit of ashortcut.
Yeah.
And that it can kind of go handin hand, right?
'cause it's like, oh, I've givenmy brain enough dopamine.
Now I feel enough motivation togo to the store.
Go with the shop.
We'd say here, right.
And, and buy some decent food.
You know, so it's almost like,you know, the supplements can
(38:16):
definitely be a bit of ajumpstart.
You know, they can definitely betaking the supplements, learning
what food that is in there.
That DLPA, uh, you, it seemedlike that was important.
I have no clue what that, whatis that?
And where do you get the DLPA?
Could you buy that in asupplement?
Is that in food?
Same.
Go on Amazon.
Go into, um, CVS or Walgreens.
(38:39):
Yeah, like you'll, you'll findit.
So, you know, it just seems likemost of this stuff is in the
food.
You know, if you go back to theBible and just see the stuff
that God provided us to eat.
Not all the stuff that we'vemanufactured.
So much of the stuff we havenow, it's just preservatives.
It's pretty manufactured,especially in America.
You know, you talked aboutCaptain Crunch.
(39:00):
Yeah.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe thing where the bottle of
the box of cereal in the UK haslike four or five ingredients
and then the one in America.
Just there's like war and peace.
Yeah.
You know, of all of these, uh,preservatives.
But, so if you, people just didresearch on what's the good food
that had all of these things inthere, you mentioned thine, my
(39:22):
wife, because this is not justfor recovery.
This is just basic day-to-dayliving and feeling good.
Even just being a follower ofChrist you wanna make good
decisions, you wanna be theperson that he wants you to be.
You want to feel better.
And not having these things canmake a person cranky, you know,
(39:42):
can make a person not make gooddecisions.
The thine.
I guess there's an ellp thine,but my wife was, was having
trouble sleeping and she doesn'te eat the square meals like she
should.
I'm always,'cause she's alwaysrunning around.
She does a lot more than I do.
You know, she just stays busyand, she wasn't sleeping and she
(40:04):
wasn't head out.
You think?
And she started taking thisL-theanine.
Is that the same thing you werementioning here?
That's it, 100%.
Yep.
That's it.
She started, bought it, thecapsule, and she said, I used to
take this in the past.
So we ordered some and shestarted taking it, started
feeling good again, startedsleeping better, and it, it
really helped her out havingthat in her system.
(40:24):
So I noticed that when I lookedin there, and I just think that
it, the average person goingthrough life, like I said, when
I started, becoming a followerof Jesus, started exercise,
started making good decisions,the more, the better shape I got
into, the better I felt.
The more I started lovingthings.
Like I didn't care about a stakeback then, but now when you see
(40:47):
a stake, I'm sitting therethinking, that's something very
pleasurable.
The, all the things, once Istarted getting in shape and
once I, when I say shape, I'm nounderwear model, but I feel, uh,
I just feel good both of thetime.
So I enjoy it, really enjoythings that I used to not.
Enjoy.
(41:08):
And I, you know, you've spelledit out pretty good there that a
lot of your diet, not just inrecovery, but just in day-to-day
life, eating Well, it's like yousaid, that line of, you know, a
Starbucks in the South is alicense to steal, not just in
the South, but in America.
The line wraps around, you know.
Coming through there and youknow, you're getting your
double, triple latte extra shotof whatever to kind of get you
(41:31):
through the day at, you know,and probably maybe eating
something sweet.
But putting all of these thingsthat you've mentioned into your
body, not just helps inrecovery.
I think it just helps in day today life.
A hundred percent.
100% it, you know, it's justhelpful for like mood and good
functioning and you know,energy, all of those things.
I think with the food, if youlook at.
(41:54):
Some of the, like if you look atthe list of ingredients on the
back of your food, I think agood rule of thumb is if there's
anything on there that's gotmore than two or three
syllables.
Probably avoid if there'sanything on there you can't
pronounce.
Yeah.
Like probably avoid that, youknow?
And if there's anything in therethat's got more than four or
five ingredients, probably avoidthat too.
(42:15):
You know, some people, you know,some people just eat like Whole
Foods, you know, and that'sfantastic.
It's not always that practicalthese days.
But if you look at somethinglike Captain Fun.
You'll often, you'll see ingrit, obviously, there'll be a
huge amounts of preservatives,colorings, e numbers.
You guys have much lessregulation around what goes into
your food, right?
(42:36):
You know, we have the sameproblem over here, but you look
at, you look on the back of likea food stuff, like caps and
crunch, right?
It will say, it'll probably sayfructose, it'll probably say
corn syrup.
It'll probably say glucose andit'll probably say sugar.
It's just all sugar, you knowwhat I mean?
It is just all sugar.
Yeah.
So it like being able toactually like decipher what's in
(42:56):
your food is a really importantthing, and I guarantee you some
of those long.
Words, you know, like you know,the mad kind of chemical, like
seven syllable exaggerating alittle bit, but like substances
you'll see listed in likeprocessed or manufactured food.
(43:16):
Yeah.
Then if you google some of thoseand look at like what that means
and look at the effects it hason the body, I guarantee you
you'll be in for a shock.
I'll guarantee you, you'll befor a shock.
Never, uh, thought it, it wouldhave that kind of impact on
recovery, but that just jumpedout at me when I saw that should
(43:38):
be so crucial that peopleshould, I don't know if it's
taught that much.
No, it is not.
It's certainly not everydaylife.
I can just tell if I've beeneating well.
I feel, well, I'm in a bettermood.
I getting a headache, the crankyor whatever.
I can go back and go look atwhat I ate.
I just went in and ate this,this or I ate the potato and I'm
tired.
So that's great stuff.
(44:00):
I will tell you, uh, I learnedkind of a way,'cause I know
people have trouble in life, youknow, with their.
You know, what they're eatingand how they're eating.
And you, like you mentioned thesteak.
I won't eat a steak five daysduring the week, but I got a, I,
at one point I had ballooned upto 240 pounds Now back in my
(44:20):
drug days and drinking, I hadkind of gotten overweight and it
would go back and forth.
You know, you start injectingheroin that way it's coming off.
'cause you're not gonna eat, butyou know, you're, you're not
looking better.
You're not feeling better.
But when I got married.
As we talked in the lastepisode, when my wife caught the
big fish, um, she landed thatbig one man landed boom.
(44:43):
You know, when, when she steppedin it.
I started, just eating and youknow, just having a good time.
I wasn't exercising or anythingI had, uh, but I ballooned up to
240 pounds.
I weigh up right at about 180pounds.
Right now I'm five foot nine, soyou can imagine 240 pounds.
(45:03):
As a matter of fact, I stillhave the pants'cause they're,
they're like a, a tent, youknow, you could run them up a
flagpole at an airport.
To tell the helicopters, whichway the winds were blowing.
And, I'd have suits that I gotto know the, the tailor very
well.
'cause I kept taking my, thesuit, I had some fairly
expensive suits, so I had tokeep going.
(45:24):
I keep expanding these suits.
But then one day I went out.
And, uh, we're gonna wrap upafter I finish this, but this is
just the way I learned to livelife.
I decided, alright, I've hadenough of this.
I can't even hardly move.
I feel horrible again all thetime.
Um, and I went out to this trackthat I'd jog on.
And I started to walk around andI would run about three miles.
(45:46):
I could get out and tap outabout three miles.
Now I don't run three miles.
I jog.
I mean, the 50-year-old lady,the, kid, little kid can come
passing me, but I would go outthere, work up a sweat and
exercise, but I walked about ahundred, 200 yards.
My back was killing me and Icould barely move.
And I just decided I'm gonnafinish this one lap.
(46:07):
And then I came back the nextday and I did two.
And then I came back the nextday and I did three, and I'm
kind of talking to people outthere that may find themselves
outta shape and you know thatnot getting into it, I just know
how much difference it made inmy life.
Getting in shape, gettingenergy, eating well and
exercising.
Four, I know it.
I was back up to the threemiles.
(46:28):
You know, but then I would kindof fluctuate a little bit
because you would get on thekick where I would eat well and
then not eat well.
Well, I settled in, I read thisbook called Body for Life by a
guy named Bill Phillips, uh,years ago.
And I'm not suggesting that'cause it was into lifting and
eating just a, you know, thesespecific things and if you're
really trying to muscle, Iwasn't trying to do all that,
(46:49):
but it really settled me intothe theory behind this was you
ate, well, you exercised, youdid that six days a week and
then you had to cheat day peopleTalk about that.
You talked about you, you saidyou had.
Had weight problems at onepoint, right?
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, for a long time.
Up and down, up and down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But well, what mine was, uh, andit's not just the cheat day,
(47:11):
that's just a little two ridges.
I kinda live my life in kind ofa, you had mentioned peaks
before.
I still like the peaks.
It's just I get different.
My peaks, uh, different thingsbring me the peak.
So I will go four or five days.
You know, as a comedian, I'mFriday and Saturdays, a lot of
times I'm traveling or whatever,and I don't eat a lot while I'm
out there, but to the averageperson that does that five day
(47:35):
week and then does the weekend,the point is if you take about
four or five days out of theweek.
That's the day you exercise,that's the day.
You eat well.
'cause people wanna live.
I mean, I'm holding my hand upflat.
People a lot of times they don'twant to, they don't wanna get in
the valleys.
But if you don't get in thevalleys, you're not gonna get up
into the peaks.
And what I mean by that is go tothe restaurants and where I live
(47:58):
or where you live and they'repacked.
People are in there eating bigmeals for lunch.
They just, they're constantly, Iguess maybe wanting the pleasure
of, of eating, but.
You know, you're gonna beoverweight, you're gonna be
tired when you get to theweekend.
It's not that big a deal.
What I way I do it is there'sfour or five days.
I'm just not gonna, I'm notgonna spend a lot of money on
food.
(48:18):
I'm not gonna spend a, I'm notgonna eat a lot of calories.
I'm just gonna focus on eatingwell.
But when I get to the weekendnow, like a Friday or a
Saturday, Saturday, I'll eatwhatever I want.
I will destroy, you know, ifyou, if we're getting pizza at
my house, I'm getting mine.
My wife's getting mine becauseI'm eating the whole thing.
If we're getting, if we'regetting fried chicken, cheese,
(48:40):
getting the chicken, I'm gettingit and I'm eating it.
The point is, I don't denymyself that.
I'm gonna have it.
I'll sit there on a Wednesdaynight going, oh yeah, we're,
we're gonna cook some ribs thisweekend.
But I don't eat'em.
I'm not just constantly eatingstuff to make my, you know, you
see what I'm saying?
That would keep me outta shape.
Yeah.
So that's just something I justwanted to throw out there.
That's really worked for me.
'cause I know people that havestruggled with getting in
(49:01):
shaping when you're feelingbetter, you know, you and I
talked about it in an earlier,uh.
Uh, earlier conversation howmuch better you're looking and
feeling.
And I didn't even notice you'dhad, you know, you'd been losing
some weight, but don't you feelmu much better?
You feel a, a walk, you know, inthe park is far more enjoyable
than it was when you'restruggling and you're tired all
(49:22):
the time.
But that's kind of what workedfor me.
I, I just kind of, um.
It's not denying myself.
I live a certain way when I'mdoing things, and then I have
those couple days and I'm gonnaenjoy myself, and then I'll eat
whatever I want to eat and I'llenjoy it.
And the the funny thing is, ison that third day, you go Friday
night, eating whatever you want,or Saturday you wake up on
(49:42):
Sunday, you don't wanna eat thegarbage anymore.
Not the garbage, but you wannago back to feeling the way I
felt before I shoved that wholepizza in my mouth.
Balance, pat.
It's all about balance.
Yeah.
I think that's a good, you know,we don't have to live rigidly,
but you know, you can have somebalance, you know, and that's
what I get from what you'resaying.
I think it's good advice for thepeople listening.
(50:04):
Well, yeah, and the peaks.
I still have the peaks that Ihave now are far, far higher
than the peaks I had when, whenI was doing it, with the
deception of the cocaine and thedrugs and those type of things.
But that's fantastic informationthat you gave Richard.
Uh, and we'll wrap it there, notjust for people in recovery, but
I think it's really important,for people that are in recovery,
(50:26):
especially in the first steps.
Put good stuff in your body andmaking yourself, feel good and.
Google and research you'resaying you can find those things
in food, you can find them inwhat you're eating.
And protein is, IM, isimportant.
You see, I learned somethingthat I did not know when I read
that post so well, greatinformation there, rich, and,
(50:47):
we're gonna leave it there.
And good talking to you.
And then I will catch up withyou next week and I think next
week you had another, anotherpost you had on here about inner
child.
I used to not like the wordinner child, but it is something
that I always thought thatsomething that.
From your childhood.
You carry an awful lot of thingsfrom your childhood, and I think
(51:09):
you're delving into that andthat's something that I've
always kinda looked into.
So I think that will be, a greatdiscussion.
So anyway, appreciate all yourgreat information, rich and I
will see you next week.
See you next week, pat.
Take care.
Bye.
Take care.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com