The Sunday Snewz Issue No. 16
May 7, 2023: Choose Your Friends Wisely
If you usually read The Sunday Snewz, you may want to try listening! The voiceover above is recorded by yours truly and gives a fun listening experience with music and other additions not available on the written version.
In local news, we kicked off the first ever Friendtorship Cohort this week! After announcing I would be taking on two new coaching clients, and receiving dozens of applications, I decided to create a cohort which allows me to work with a small group, five individuals at a time, in addition to my one-on-one clients. The current group consists of people in my local area, as well as a few who participate from a distance via zoom and one who commutes several hours to participate in person. It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring people together from across the country and make new friends. We meet as a group the first week of each month, for a total of three months and work towards the goals of:
Getting to know yourself better.
Shifting mindset.
Building a “toolbox” of practices to help you create sustainable and lasting change.
You have take home work for each person to work through individually and we connect regularly via text and email. It feels great to be coaching again and certainly addresses the real need for more human interaction we all crave. This will be the only cohort I offer this year but plan to make this a regular addition come 2024. Be sure to stay in touch to find out when the next session comes available.
A fascinating new study performed by Danish researchers found that Cannabis use is a considerable factor in new cases of schizophrenia. There is no doubt smoking marijuana, taking edibles and using the so-called “natural and healthy” alternative to alcohol to escape, medicate and self-soothe is on the rise. I’ve done my fair share of drugs over the course of my lifetime but was never much into smoking dope. It made me paranoid and gave me the munchies. Freak out and get fat - no thanks. Once edibles came onto the scene I considered myself too old to want to escape and besides, I had alcohol to help me do that, right? My one and only experience with edibles left me sitting on the curb, searching my phone for our electronic tickets to the Dave Chappell and Joe Rogan show. Eventually I found them but only recall blurry glimpses of their acts. What a waste.
So while I agree cannabis is a healthier option than alcohol, I think the use of any substance on a regular basis is catastrophic. It blurs your vision to what really matters in life, takes you away from real connection with those around you and overall puts a band-aid on the real issues you are trying to avoid. Plus it makes you stupid, unmotivated, lazy and overall loser-ish. And now come to find out, you may end up schizophrenic.
Your best bet? Be present. Fix the root of the your problems and don’t be a pot head.
Cannabis is not your friend.
Once again it was difficult to know where to place a story. While Michelle Obama is no longer in politics, this story didn’t deserve a place in the Health and Wellness category. Her new food company, PLEZi (who in the hell named this thing), would appropriately fall into the Anti-Health and Unwellness category but I don’t have one of those so politics it is. This makes sense too because this story has people divided right down the brainless politic lines.
As first lady, Michelle spear headed the Let’s Move Campaign and championed the 2010 “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,” which set the federal nutrition standards for school lunches. While her intentions seemed good, the reality is, school lunches in the United States are abysmal. This is an area I know well, as my company Copow Foods, actually provides healthy lunches to schools through our Neopow division. A program we have implemented in Acton Academies in Las Vegas and are working to expand nationwide in years to come. The struggle to get healthy lunches into public schools is real and I commend Michelle for taking on the challenge but don’t be fooled into thinking the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” was a success - it wasn’t. It may have kept some kids hunger-free but it sure as hell didn’t keep them healthy.
Now, many years out of office, the Obama’s are clearly using their notoriety to build wealth not health. They are certainly not alone in using their political prowess to get rich, everybody does it, but doing it under the guise of making kids healthier is sickening. While she touts her new juice is better than 75% of juices out there, Michelle fails to remember, kids shouldn’t be drinking juice at all! But telling people to drink water doesn’t make you rich, unless you start a water company (of which I am) so it’s easier to partner up with a private equity company who specializes in flashy, unhealthy food partnerships with celebrities. Calley Means, a former consultant for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has become a "whistleblower" on the state of the beverage industry said it best, “"We don't recommend kids should smoke safer cigarettes. But what sugary drinks is doing is far worse and we should not be recommending safe sugary drinks.” It appears Michelle does believe safer cigarettes are better than teaching kids not to smoke. As her website states…
Saying “No” Is No Fun
“As parents, it seems like all we do is say “NO” to our kids…Especially when it comes to what kids want to eat and drink. While we try our best to get our kids to choose healthy options, it often seems all they want are sugar-filled drinks and snacks.”
Because that’s what’s being marketed to them. And telling your kids no is your job as a parent. Especially when it comes to their health.
If you look to left-leaning news outlets like CNN, you will see Obama being trumpeted for making “healthier” foods and drinks available. The key word being “healthier” not “healthy.” A bar not hard to reach considering most packaged foods and drinks kids consume are chemical dumps of dyes, sugar, artificial sweeteners and preservatives, setting them up for a lifetime of obesity, disease, diabetes and at the very least, disrupted blood sugar and weight struggles. The average American kid consumes an excess of 57 pounds of sugar per year.
As an entrepreneur and diehard Capitalist, not to mention lover of Christian Louboutin, never missing an opportunity to flash that red sole, signaling just how much better I am, I take no issue with people getting rich. In fact, it is the very thing that makes the poor less poor and raises the standard of living for everyone, but it has to be done ethically. Believe me, I would have many more millions in my bank account if I had used my capital to buy a few McDonald’s franchises instead of creating a company whose mission is to bring healthy food to the world. I would be flying private by now had I started a cookie company instead of donating a meal for every meal to the food insecure with the help of The Just One Project. I would have crafted a caffeine ridden, sugar bomb in bright packaging instead of Grenius, a functional water that provides health enhancing nootropics, vitamins and adaptogens if I was willing to make money at the cost of my integrity. But I didn’t do those things because morals matter more than money. Luxury goods provide little enjoyment when I can’t look myself in the mirror.
Michelle Obama is no friend to the kids. She isn’t creating something to improve the health of children. If she wanted to do that she would spend her time in neighborhoods and schools, educating people on what it really means to be healthy, like our Executive Chef at Copow did this past week when he visited the Life Skills Academy.
Instead she’s spending her time in boardrooms concocting better than garbage products and planning out the living room of her $15M estate.
Be a money grubber for all I care but don’t do it at the cost of kids’ health and don’t be a fucking liar.
Cinco de Mayo took on a new meaning for me back in 2015 when my dear friend, Greg Moore, was shot and left to die in the street. Greg was a Sargent in the police department when at 1:05 am he rolled up into a quiet neighborhood where a young guy dressed in dark clothing was clearly out of place. Without any warning signs or escalation, this guy removed a beautiful life from the world. Stripping his young son, a brand new baby daughter, a wife, family and countless friends of the gift of Greg’s presence. I miss him.
We met back in 2010 when he pulled up at my new gym in his patrol car. I had been open for all of a five days and had maybe a handful of clients. We hit it off instantly, he with an unexpected charm and me with my bombshell body and stellar sense of humor. He not only started coming to my gym but he brought all of his friends with him. Before long, the parking lot during my noon class looked like the parking lot of a donut shop and within a year, I had a contract to train the county SWAT team. The backbone of my gym was training local law enforcement, all thanks to Greg. These men became some of my closest friends - people I stay in close contact with to this day. We improved our lives together, partied our tails off together, ran adventure races, raised our kids, buried a few kids, attended all sorts of celebrations together and on a sad day in May, we attended Greg’s funeral together.
Greg was fondly referred to as “G-Money,” a name he quite possibly gave himself, as he certainly didn’t lack in “cool factor,” or so he liked to think. He loved Pitbull, the artist not the dogs, and to this day I cannot hear Give Me Everything Tonight without thinking of Greg. I put this song this year and I danced in my living room. I thought about all the people Greg brought into my life, all the friends I have because of him and felt a tinge of sadness, wishing I could once again cut a rug with my friend.
Give me everything tonight. For all we know, we might not get tomorrow.
How true these words are and how little we knew of that the last time we danced.
Genuine friendship is hard to come by. It is so easy to neglect the friendships we’ve had for so long because let’s face it, we are all busy and life takes a lot out of us. But friends are just as important to us as adults as they were when we were kids. We need friends. We need people in our lives who help lift us up when we are down and cheer us on when things are good. Friendship deserves more than an emoji shot across distance on a handheld device. It deserves face to face interaction, real live conversations and affection shown through a nice long hug.
Carve out time for your friends - for all you know, you might not get tomorrow.