Roz – Page 17 – Serenity Through Sweat

COVID-19 Engineering

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I can’t remember where I heard (a good chance it was a JRE podcast) that engineering is finding a way to do what you want with what you have. At the time, I thought about ways to stay in shape with the things I have at home (before the pandemic, but knowing how hard it is to get out of the house with a newborn) COVID-19 is showing us how deep that idea really goes.

One month side by side of El Duderino and Speedy

From a fitness standpoint, most people’s routine has been turned upside down. Grapplers, crossfitters, gym goers have all had to adjust. But garage gym athletes, folks who favor the kettlebell or sandbag, and bodyweight or calisthenic practitioners have already found a way to stay fit when what they have. Running, biking, hiking, jumping rope, are all great ways to get outside and engineer your fitness with things you probably already have.

El Duderino approves of the shrimp and grits, grilled broccoli, and Amish friendship bread.

With restaurants closed and some grocery store staples picked clean, I know I have certainly gotten more creative in the kitchen. From modifying recipes to make meat last longer, scratch baking, and catering to the sensitive, yet discerning, palette of a toddler, the kitchen has become a laboratory of experimentation and family fun with COVID-19 changing our eating and shopping patterns. Finding new and different ways to keep the family eating a healthy diet has been an interesting challenge in doing what I want with what is available.

Parenting and family activities sure look a lot different when you can’t touch public surfaces. Keeping a toddler interested in anything for more than fifteen minutes is a challenge, but removing some of our usual routine activities (library, playground, science center, pool/splash pad) has made us dig deep as parents to provide entertainment and education. The resources made available from organizations as well as individuals helping each other provide a nurturing environment for their children is heart warming and incredible.

I think one of the biggest silver linings to this pandemic is our collective ability to adapt and overcome. To engineer our way through a problem. A lot of us have become teachers, IT managers, personal trainers, and chefs, in addition to any other hats we might have already worn beforehand. All of those skills have been there all along, they just needed a little nudge to find their way to the surface. With a little ingenuity, and a can do attitude, we can still do most of the things we want with what we already have, and engineer our way towards Serenity.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, some solo miles in the midday Florida sun and my phone shut down from over temp mid workout with the sandbag and the training mask.

COVID-19 Tourniquet

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. As we slog our way through week eight (for my family at least) of quarantine, I have tried to spend my downtime brushing up on, or learning new, useful skills. (Most of the downtime is while holding a sleeping newborn, while the rest of the family tries to catch up on sleep)

There has never been a better time when it comes to free access to quality information. We have talked before on this blog about hobbies and activities that put you in a better position no matter what happens. Being physically fit, knowing how to grow your own food, brew your own beer (especially this one), or some basic first aid. Which brings me to the Tourniquet.

I remember first learning about the Tourniquet as a boy scout (age 11 or 12) and I remember joking with my friends that “tourniquets solve all problems”. If you don’t know what a Tourniquet is, I should first explain that this was adolescent sarcasm, and they do not infact solve almost any problems.

A Tourniquet is a device for stopping the flow of blood typically by compressing a limb with a cord or a tight bandage. The idea is if you have a severe enough cut on an extremity where there is a possibility of bleeding out, restricting blood flow upstream of the cut will prevent you from bleeding out. However, you are restricting blood flow to everything downstream of the Tourniquet, and blood flow is pretty important for, ya know, staying alive.

The Tourniquet temporarily stops the immediate threat of bleeding out, but it doesn’t really solve the problem, I.E. the cut. And with it’s use comes a plethora of potential complications. Leave it on too long and risk nerve, muscle, and tissue damage, or necrosis (tissue death). When the Tourniquet comes off and blood flow returns to the area, the body sends extra blood causing excessive swelling and further complications, especially since the tissue was already compromised by the cut.

After the quick crash course in tourniquets, (pun intended), it isn’t hard to see the parallels in our COVID-19 quarantine. Quarantine, shelter in place, lockdown, whatever term we are using, is like putting a Tourniquet on this virus. We can buy ourselves some time to slow the spread so as not to overwhelm the hospital system, but it won’t solve the problem.

As we discussed above, deciding when to take the Tourniquet off (lift shutdown orders) is a tricky decision. Leave it on too long and we will see damage to the downstream systems like unemployment, permanent business closures, breakdown in supply chains, food shortages, and potentially civil unrest. Take the Tourniquet off to early and we risk flooding the hospital system that has already been compromised.

Typical Tourniquet timelines say that any longer than two hours will result in neurovascular damage. There is no playbook or established timeline for lifting shutdown orders, but I think we are already starting to see some of that damage. It will be up to all of us as individuals and families to assess the risk and make that decision for ourselves. Some of us might be able to hold on longer with the Tourniquet tightened, others may already be suffering irreversible damage.

The point is, there is no right answer and everyone’s situation is different. Risk assessed decisions carried out with appropriate precaution should be respected. That might mean staying home if you have immuno compromised family in the home. Or, it might mean getting back to work with appropriate risk mitigation. We can do what is right for our families and what is right for the nation as a whole, the two are not mutually exclusive.

Thanks for joining me and stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week in SerenityThroughSweat, stroller runs with the face shield, El Duderino with his little brother Speedy, and Amish friendship bread baking and blanket forts on a rainy day.

This Country’s Healthcare Problem

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. If the title is any indication, I might have bit of more than I can chew. Healthcare is a hot button issue, only made hotter by being an election year in the face of a global pandemic. Here’s my two cents, take it for what it is worth, ( but you should take it we are headed for a recession after all and every penny counts)

Finding uses for our quarantine Amazon habit

This country has a huge problem with healthcare. There I said it. But not the problem you think. This country has one of the most robust hospital networks in the world, some of the most talented practitioners, and some of the most innovative medical scientists. The overall cost and access point might be a bit askew but that’s not really the major problem either (although it does need addressing). So what is the problem?

All of these items just mentioned are “sick care” not Healthcare. The system currently in place is designed to help you get healthy from a point of injury or illness, rather than cultivate you as a healthy individual from the start. Taken in that context, America’s sick care although expensive is tremendous. But it doesn’t take a long look to realize our healthcare is in the trash. Obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyles, and a plethora of highly processed garbage food options are there not for far too many of us.

If you’ve been a reader of the blog for any length of time, the message (although it is likely lost in my lengthy lecturing) is one of total well-being, and largely by taking steps that are within our reach. Diet, exercise, sleep, hydration, mental and emotional well-being, these are life skills that everyone has room for improvement in, and lead to this hazy concept of Serenity.

There is no time like the present to start the work on your own Healthcare. If extra time home and a global pandemic isn’t the kickstart you need, what is?

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, STEM challenge with Amazon boxes and matchbox cars, some quality backyard time in the kiddie pool, some solo miles sans stroller, and I even went back to my roots for an old jump rope workout I did years ago.

Preparedness ASAP

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about how we handle ourselves after the dust settles. Hindsight is always 20/20 and there will undoubtedly be questions as to what we could have done better, individually, locally, nationally, and globally. While playing the blame game is gratifying, and I’m sure there will be plenty of nefarious actions/inactions to examine, the real truth is more important than fault.

ASAP, in this context stands for Aviation Safety Action Program as opposed to As Soon As Possible. (Although you should also make preparedness a priority as soon as possible). My master’s thesis was on Safety Management Systems in airports and a large portion of that I spent researching various ASAP programs. One of the core tenets of ASAP programs is something called just culture, and I think that is our only hope for unravelling this catastrophe.

The safety of the overall system is enhanced by collecting, analyzing, and applying data directly from the frontline. But, the only way to get truly accurate date is from frontline users who find themselves in hazardous situations largely because of a lack of preparedness, or mistakes. Just culture is the idea that we should be more concerned with identifying hazards in the system, both proactively and reactively, than reprimanding those who encounter those hazards. If people aren’t afraid of being reprimanded, they are more likely to point out their mistakes so that someone else won’t make them, and the whole system gets better

As an individual, how prepared were you for this event? When did you start to take it seriously? Did you already have some money set aside in an emergency fund, some extra food in the pantry? Have you been taking care of your health to avoid potentially complicating conditions that would put you at a higher risk? These are all questions that need to be answered, not so that you can blame yourself, but so that you can asses the vulnerability in the system and shore it up.

The same questions can be asked of our local entities. How much PPE do hospitals local hospitals keep in storage on a regular basis? How have your representatives worked to set up testing and triage? What have they done to help small business owners? These questions are asked not to sway votes come November, but to establish a better play book for the overall health of the system when the next crisis hits.

On a national level, what information was known and when was it acted upon from a policy standpoint? There are far too many political intricacies that are way over most of our heads to fully understand the process in it’s entirety. But the truth will never come out if the end game is blame.

You don’t have to scroll far through a social media feed to find memes on how both the left and the right botched the handling of this pandemic. If we can look at this from a point of just culture, we might be able to make things better for ourselves rather than tearing each other down.

I’ve written before about holding myself accountable for my own shortcomings, and I think that’s a vital part of Serenity Through Sweat. But, I think it’s also important to be able to forgive ourselves, when we misstep, especially if we can make the system stronger in the process. Honesty, forgiveness, and growth, are the best way forward after this pandemic, and the best path towards Serenity.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, Speedy is three weeks old and the sleep debt is accumulating. A few stroller runs with El Duderino looking for work trucks, and an attempt at Amish Friendship Bread starter. (It takes ten days so stay tuned for results)

Bad Mood Rising

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. As COVID-19 continues to direct our everyday lives, and quarantine and social distancing measures carry on, a lot of negative emotions that normally run in the background are bubbling up to the surface.

Just like the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song, many of us may find a bad mood on the rise during these times. I think it’s important to recognize we are not our thoughts or emotions, but we are largely defined by our actions and choices.

Having negative thoughts, having a bad day, feeling angry, depressed, afraid, jealous, etc… Does not make you a bad person. Thoughts and emotions are natural parts of being human, and the “negative” feelings have their place. It is up to us to be mindful of these thoughts and feelings and choose to act on them with purpose.

We carry these negative emotions with us all the time. They are a natural and normal part of us. Most of the time they are a small fraction of the whole. Like an ounce and a half of yeast in six cups of flour. But with the right environmental stressors, that tiny amount of yeast can cause us to bubble over. But those emotions can also help us create something beautiful.

Many times over the course of this last week, I’ve found myself jealous of my wife. She went back to work as a teacher two weeks after giving birth, and is maintaining caring for our family with her new work schedule like a rockstar. I on the other hand, am still adapting to what my self identity looks like staying at home and not flying. I know this emotion is based on my own uncertainty and insecurities. It is a constant battle to be self aware enough to remind myself that this is a natural, (even if uncomfortable) feeling, and that my outward demeanor as a husband and father is my choice.

I think any of us at home with kids, particularly toddlers, are finding new limits to our patience. El Duderino, at two years old doesn’t understand why we can’t go to the playground, or the library, or to see his friends at daycare. And those frustrations, along with the normal two year old toddler temper tantrums, are enough to test anyone’s mood. It’s my job as his father to maintain composure despite the uncertainty, and throughout the temper tantrums, to foster a nurturing environment.

Now more than ever, Serenity Through Sweat, is a vital part of my mental health regimen. Especially for grapplers, who are normally used to relieving stress by consensual choking, finding alternative and positive physical outlets is crucial. Those negative thoughts and feelings can control us, they can define us, or they can fuel us. The choice is ours, and the path to serenity is long.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s Serenity Through Sweat, my second go around and homemade bread, (the first batch didn’t have yeast) some stroller run miles with El Duderino, and throwing some arrows down range in the backyard happy place.

Nerve

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I wrote a while back about being brave (Fostering Comfort) referencing Ned Starks remarks in Game of Thrones. He tells his son the only time a man can be brave is when he is afraid. My dad sent me a series of quotes on my birthday this year that I think fit our current situation a little better.

“People often say I am brave, but I’ve never said I am brave. What I think I have is nerve, which is not the same thing. Being brave or being courageous is doing something you are afraid to do and I don’t do anything that I’m afraid to do. Nerve is different.When you prepare to do something, whether it’s sailing a boat across the ocean or climbing a mountain or doing anything that has an element of danger, you prepare yourself and your equipment as well as you possibly can given your resources. Having nerve is the willingness after you’ve done all your preparation to embark upon something whose outcome is uncertain and may be fatal”

Powerful words from one of the world’s greatest explorer/adventurer. Webb Chiles said this in an interview after completing his sixth solo circumnavigation of the globe at age seventy seven.

I’m not trying to compare going to the grocery store amid a global pandemic to a solo journey around the world, (although the former requires significantly more gear and planning than before all this happened). The similarity lies in the outcome, and the level of uncertainty.

This virus has turned everyday activities like shopping, walking, shaking hands, and hugging, into activities with an uncertain outcome. Trying to avoid a virus you can’t see, smell, or hear is somewhat of a sisyphean task. Even if the odds are low after coming in contact with COVID-19, the potential is there to be fatal.

That means everything we do now, what before seemed like everyday, ordinary, tasks, require nerve. We prepare our bodies, our minds, and our equipment, and then we embark on an activity whose outcome is uncertain.

In the interim, this will result in heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and fear. But, when we do finally turn the corner, we will all able to channel that nerve into other pursuits, serenity among them.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week in quarantine; the daddy drawn coloring book expands from vehicles to dinosaurs, I try my hand at baking bread, and a quick 5k stroller run with El Duderino to maintain some sanity and Serenity if only for the briefest of moments.

Happy Easter

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Easter means a lot of different things to different people. It is beyond the scope or intention of this blog to really hammer out religious theology, but one of the over bearing themes of the holiday is new life.

The last two weeks have been crazy for everyone. COVID-19 has us living a new life that I think it’s safe to say most of us, weren’t prepared for. I’ve been very blessed to be home with my family, not working, (by choice for the most part). We have just been living, and adjusting to what life looks like with four of us instead of three of us.

Outside of some wierd grocery sterilization practices, the last two weeks wouldn’t have been that different for us had there been no virus. Which got me thinking about Easter, and our new life.

This virus has already, and will continue to cause an untold amout of suffering. From the direct impact of human loss, to the economic damage, to the psychological stress placed on everyone, no one is untouched by this. However, many of us will emerge from this relatively unscathed. Businesses can be rebuilt, events can be rescheduled, and we will be able to get back to a new life after all of this. The blessing, the silver lining, is in choosing that new life.

There’s a new sheriff in town. Daddy’s sunglasses, and great grandpa’s hat

Right now my days are filled with wrangling a toddler, juggling the needs of a wife who isn’t supposed to lift anything, and trying to keep a two week old alive. There isn’t much room for anything else. Am I worried about keeping my family healthy? Absolutely. Do I think about my friends and family that are outside my little quarantine bubble? Of course. Am I concerned about the state of the airline industry or the broader economy? Sure. But the pressing need, the top priority, is just living. Being a husband, being a father, raising strong, smart, healthy boys.

I don’t know what the world looks like after all of this, and I can’t fathom the suffering that has and will be caused. In my own circumstance though, I’m thankful for the ability to reset, to reevaluate, and to begin a new life with a fresh perspective.

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s Serenity through Sweat, an extra sweaty and windy 10k. The Florida weather has been a blessing allowing us to be outside as opposed to our northern neighbors, but the midday temps when both kids and my wife are napping, makes sure I earn my moniker.

Faith, Hope, and Reality

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I have seen this quote from James Stockdale thrown out from a few different sources and I wanted to add my two cents on it. (You should probably take it, we are headed for a recession after all)

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

The current reality is uncertainty. We still have a lot to learn about this virus. We don’t know the best ways to protect those we love and still function in society as we knew it. We don’t know what the economy, and more importantly our individual jobs and communities will look like after this is all said and done.

I have a tremendous amount of faith in the human spirit. Humans are capable of incredible things and I have no doubt that though this pandemic will significantly alter our trajectory as a species, it will not end it. However, faith and hope are not a tactical plan.

There are some things though that make sense to do no matter what happens. Simon Black, the author of the Sovereign Man (whom you should check out if you are not familiar), says this frequently about having a plan B. In a time of uncertainty where there is no playbook, a plan B with elements that are good for you no matter what is a good place to start.

If you have read this blog for any length of time, (thank you) you know that I’m constantly advocating for, and actively pursuing, physical, mental, and emotional, well-being. Working out, meditation, hydration, diet, sleep, are all things largely within our control, that are helpful no matter what. Whatever situation arises, you will be in a better place to tackle it from a complete state of well-being.

Budgeting is a skill that can be practiced and applied to many areas of our lives, and again is helpful no matter what. Confront the brutal facts of your reality, are you living within your means? Can you put aside money for a rainy day? Can you put aside food for a rainy day? Can you budget your time for well-being activities or hobbies that cultivate life skills. Scratch cooking, self defense, hunting, gardening, sewing, carpentry, etc… Will all be more useful in the whatever society emerges from this than watching Netflix.

As we move forward together to face whatever life looks after all of this, I hope that things will be better and brighter. In the meantime, reality dictates same drastic changes, and I’ll be working on my plan B.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, my first time out running since speedy arrived, a stroller run with El Duderino, and some outside time with the sandbag and training mask. There has never been a better time to use a training mask. I used to get all sorts of weird looks, now I blend right in.

Embrace and Harness

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. For the moment fitness has taken a backseat to fatherhood (in the context of blog topics, it has always been in that order in life in general). With the arrival of Speedy, and managing him and his big brother El Duderino, life has gotten a bit hectic. Throw in the added complications of COVID-19 and it is easy to be overwhelmed.

I’m reminded of a particularly tough loss in a wrestling tournament I had my senior year in high school. Crying in a mostly deserted high school hallway, not knowing what I did wrong or could have done better in a close semifinal match, my coach found me and gave me a quick pep talk that has stuck with me.

The bullet points were, “be pissed, be sad, be disappointed. Feel all of it. But after ten minutes, it’s time to get back to work and most of those are not productive emotions.”

I think it’s easy to find ourselves in many of those emotional states (anger, sadness, depression) with everything that has changed in recent weeks. Kids at home 24/7, uncertainty about jobs or finances, heck just plain old cabin fever is enough to test your mental and emotional fortitude.

And just like my coach told me all those years ago, I think it is important to embrace those feelings. Ignoring them or bottling them up isn’t healthy. Dig in to them, let them wash over you, but only for a short period of time. Whether it is once an hour, once a day, or once a week, check in on those feelings and realize that this isn’t normal and it’s ok to feel them.

But then it’s back to work…

This isn’t an easy process. Most rewarding things aren’t. This is a lesson I’ve brought with me for the last fifteen years and I’m still struggling with it.

With a toddler at home adjusting to a new family dynamic, a newborn on a two hour sleep cycle, and a wife who isn’t supposed to lift anything after just giving birth, (I still got the easier end of that deal, BY FAR,) my daily to do list is getting more difficult than finding toilet paper at the store. And with those chores piling up, and the sleep debt accumulating, comes the frustration, the self pity, and the jealousy.

Performing for the family is always the number one goal, especially when the shit hits the fan (read: job uncertainty, global pandemic, and newborn). It seems like I’m mostly running on caffeine, but harnessing those emotions helps get me over the hump. (At least until speedy starts sleeping more than a couple hours).

So in between the cooking, the cleaning, and the laundry. After the potty training, the arts and crafts, and the outside play time. And when bath time and bedtime have come and gone, I can harness those unproductive emotions, remember that it is natural and normal to feel them, and keep soldiering on towards Serenity.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat has been tapered back a bit with it being speedy’s first week alive and all. But I have been able to sneak in two Simple and Sinister kettlebell workouts, some push-ups and air squats, and a few rehab mobilizations from The Ready State.

This post was started this morning while El Duderino was playing in the sand, Speedy was in the basinet, and my wife was taking a much needed nap. It was finished while I took the first watch with Speedy and my wife gets as much sleep as she can before he wakes up hungry.

Dr. Dad

Sunday night started out normal enough. El Duderino went down for bedtime without any trouble. Heather was down as well and I was scheduled to have a video happy hour with some other pilot buddies who haven’t been flying.

Having some social interaction for the first time in over two weeks, even over video chat, was much needed and appreciated. The couple of extra beers as the conversation stretched on didn’t hurt the situation either. I was felt like a small piece of me that I hadn’t realized was missing, had been returned to it’s rightful place. As I hung up the phone a sense of fulfilled calm came over me, accompanied by that sneaky little smile you realize is on your face only after it’s been there long enough for others to wonder what it is you’ve figured out.

That feeling was quickly replaced by reality. Getting off the phone at close to midnight, having sated my craft beer craving more than I had in the past six weeks, to my wife telling me that her water broke. Timing has never really been my strong suit.

In general, I’m a person who does better when active. My wife going into labor is no exception. Preparing supplies, meal prepping, getting our guest room ready for grandparents, anything to keep myself busy. This is how my next few hours were spent early Monday morning despite the primary need to sleep and sober up.

After a few hours of sleep, and without my wife’s contractions having started yet, there was a much more organized calm to the morning. El Duderino left with his grandma to have an adventure with her and give my wife and I time and space for our own adventure. We went for a walk, watched some Netflix, and enjoyed a relaxed pace day at home with just the two of us.

The midwives came by around noon and reported that the water had not truly broken, and that without contractions starting there was no hurry to meet baby just yet.

Contractions started in earnest around two in the afternoon. My wife is the type of strong independent person who doesn’t like to ask for help, and prefers to do things herself. Anticipating the needs of a woman has been a task that has baffled men for millennia, pregnancy does not simplify this task in any way. I tried to make myself available at a moment’s notice and otherwise follow signs to be helpful when and where I could. (Along with timing, reading signs is also not a strong suit of mine). This meant being in the next room reading, but within fifteen feet and within earshot, and checking in every five to ten minutes between chapters.

My wife let me know that she thought she had about five hours of labor left based on her leave why El Duderino from to years ago and how she felt. In hindsight this was a silly prediction, but in my head it have me a timeframe to work with. Predicting labor is probably less reliable than picking ponies. At any time they can run like gangbusters or stop in their tracks and then start again.

I overheard my wife’s reaction to a particularly stronger contraction, and heard her call the midwives to have them start making their way to our home as labor was ramping up. This was about an hour and for five minutes into my fictional give hour clock. I made my way into the room expecting the contraction to be mostly finished by the time I actually got to her side. Instead I was greeted with “oh God, baby’s head is in my shorts, help me get them off”

As a pilot we train for lots of different emergencies and I feel very comfortable in most situations. We’ve spent a lot of time in this blog taking about calm in the Chaos. Knowing that my wife hemorrhaged during her first delivery, and that it was just me and her with medical professionals at least twenty minutes out, (albeit thankfully on speaker phone) I can tell you there was a very long two to three minutes of chaos without calm.

My Wonder woman wife pushed our son out, and our midwife team talked me through what I needed to do and what I needed to look for until they got there. It reminded me of an autopilot kicking off in flight unexpectedly. There is an initial shock factor, and something obviously isn’t going to plan, but ultimately the airplane wants to keep flying, and after a thorough systems check the autopilot can be reengaged.

There is so much uncertainty in this world, and the best laid plans often get thrown out the window. It is in times of stress that we find what we are truly made of. I’m so grateful and blessed to be surrounded by people made of the right stuff.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.