Alcohol 2.0 is the same

High priced bourbon, craft beer and wine - ah the elixir of the elite. ALCOHOL 2.0

Stan is starting to feel a pain in his upper right side, he is a bit over weight due to his "great" holiday season - Christmas and New Years.  He makes a New Years resolution to finally lose some weight (again) and to slow down his drinking.  He vows to do a "sober" January.  He wakes up on January 1 with a nice hangover, after all since he is going to stop drinking in January he decided to have a few extra's on New Years Eve, what could it hurt.

The first few days are a bit rough, by 5 o'clock on January 1st, his brain is screaming for a drink of alcohol since that is about when the anesthetic effect of the previous nights drinks are starting to wear off, on top of that he feels that dull ache in his right side.  He fights through the urge to drink and even pours the last two craft beers he hid away in the back of the fridge down the kitchen sink as a testament to his resolve.

The next two days are rough and he seems on edge at work.  The pain is still there and he is having a bit of trouble sleeping, he wakes up exhausted each morning but soldiers on, he dusts off the treadmill he bought many New Years ago and decides he is going to start walking daily along with a new calorie restricted diet.  He drags himself to walk for 10 minutes the first two days.  Damn, 10 minutes never felt so long before and 500 calories a day sucks.

The pain in his side is still there.  He decides to go in for a yearly physical with his general doctor and gets on the schedule for mid next week.  The weekend comes and there are some football games to watch.    He struggles through the first game, drink free, since it was a habit of his to always have a "few" while enjoying the game on his 55 inch HD TV.  His favorite beer commercial comes on and his brain screams "Son of a Bitch - I need a drink."   He remembers his doctors appointment is coming up so he abstains from drinking and turns off the TV and decides to go to bed early.

The next few days are foggy, his mind is racing and he can't seem to concentrate.  He still is struggling with sleep and his treadmill is collecting dust again.  Tomorrow is the doctor visit.

He visits the doctor, and they also schedule him for blood work at the local lab.  The doctor warns him about his weight gain over the past year and asks him all the standard questions, he doesn't mention the dull ache in his right side since it seems to have settled down a bit.  He goes to the lab and they draw his blood and inform him they will send the results over to his doctor for review.

He is on day 7 of his "sober" January and he seems "out of sorts."  The good news is he is starting to sleep better but still feels exhausted, the daily walks on the treadmill are now an after thought as he finds them too boring.  He sticks to the calorie restricted diet to help him lose some weight, and checking the scale daily he is already down 5 pounds!  Around noon time he receives a phone call from his doctors office and they want to schedule a follow up from his recent blood work.  He is scheduled for tomorrow evening.

Doctor - "I reviewed the results of your blood work and have some concerns about your liver enzyme count, it is out of the normal range, actually it's a bit on the high side, how many drinks are you having a week?"

Stan - "well Doc, you know the normal amount on the weekend"

Doctor - "what's the normal amount?"

Stan - "well I drink the good stuff Doc, high priced Bourbon and craft IPA's, you know a few, maybe 3-4 drinks, but I have decided to quit drinking for the month of January, and I started a new diet and I've already lost 5 pounds"

Doctor - "That's great.  I was really concerned you were drinking the rot gut whiskey and light beer, you know that cheap stuff that will damage your liver and kill you, are you experiencing any discomfort on your upper right side?"

Stan - "now that you mention it I was feeling a bit of pain high up under my right rib cage but it seems to be OK now"

Doctor - "that's probably just some local inflammation in your liver based upon your blood work, I'll give you a 'script - use it for the next week and if the pain doesn't go away call me and well send you in for some further tests"

Stan - "thanks Doc"

Doctor - "keep up the diet and we'll see you next year"

Stan gets the 'script filled, take the pills for 5 days then another weekend of football comes, and he goes back to drinking the "good stuff" and the pain in his side goes away and he feels good again.

The vicious cycle goes on -  Stan can't imagine living life without Alcohol 2.0, it's his reward for being alive.

my new product would never get through Shark Tank

I developed a new product - here are the product claims (the perceived benefits):

Using my new consumable product

• makes you happy
• makes you fun to be around 
• makes you feel brave and confident
• makes you sexy
• makes you outgoing in social situations
• relieves stress
• relieves boredom
• helps you celebrate good times
• helps you forget bad times
• enhances a meal
• enhances your social status

This is great product and 80% of the population will use it - most will claim to use it socially, primarily on weekends, some on special occasions, and some will eventually become daily users.

To produce the product is low cost, it's basically decaying vegetable matter, or cooked and distilled cheap grain products and carries a very high profit margin per volume.  

THE SHARKS - "wow, that product sounds fantastic surely there has to be some downside, we need to know the risks before we decide"

Well now that you mentioned it there are a few things but we don't talk about them much because the claims (the perceived benefits) are socially accepted as the truth, and if you do not use the product you will be in the minority and be judged as having a problem, not using the product carries a social stigma.

These are just minor problems (side effects) of using the product:

• it has no nutritional value and could make you obese
• it is a registered poison in it's pure chemical form
• it is highly addictive 
• it causes dehydration even though it is in liquid form
• it cause cancer
• it is an anesthetic and can make you comatose if too much is consumed 
• it is a depressant
• it causes birth defects in the unborn if used while pregnant 
• it destroys internal organs and destroys brain cells
• it causes premature aging
• it will reduce your life expectancy
• it tastes terrible in it's native chemical form
• it effects your judgement and motor skills
• it can cause immediate illness, including violent vomiting 
• it can cause immediate death if too much is consumed too quickly

Please note: The highly addictive and dehydration problems are great benefits to the product if you are selling it to the consumer.  The poison and bad taste are easily overcome by diluting the product to low percentages by volume and adding in other taste enhancers to mask the terrible taste. In fact we have a whole line of products called mixers that we sell to go along with our new consumable, and we opened up a school to teach people how to mix up the product so that the consumer will pay extra for the opportunity to get the perceived benefits.

This is a no lose product.  While we can't substantiate any of the claims or perceived benefits we can advertise and use social proof as our marketing strategy.  Also the government doesn't require any warning labels on the product or packaging so we do not need to inform the consumer of the side effects of using the product.

THE SHARKS - "well what is the product"

ALCOHOL 2.0 

drinking the poison Alcohol is an expensive addiction

Want a shock - track the cost of your social drinking, regular drinking, habitual drinking and occasional drinking for one month.  I did this.  Killing yourself slowly with an alcohol addiction is very expensive.

I am going to take some averages, then add in some extra's.

On average I consumed 6-8 craft beers a day.  A 6 pack of craft beer cost $12.00 or $2 a bottle at the beer store.  So I'll say I was drinking on average 210 beers a month.  $420 a month, cha-ching.

I would occasionally go out for a "few" with a friend during the month, say about two times.  A "few" was usually 5, I know drunk math.  Craft beer at the place we would go was $7 a pint, so a "few" cost me $40 including tip.  $80 a month, cha-ching.

So on average I was spending $500 a month pouring a taxi poison down my throat seeking illusional benefits.  $6000 a year......but wait there is more....vacations.

I usually go on vacation 3-4 times a year.  This entails eating out at fancy restaurants and going to bars, playing golf and various other activities, that some how always included alcohol.  I'm going to be conservative and say each of these vacations cost me an additional $400 in alcohol, or $1600 per year.  Don't believe me, we proudly spent $225 for the "large" bottle of silver oak red wine (twice) while on vacation because after all we only drink the good stuff with our meal, aren't we special.

My yearly drinking total is now at $7600! or over $625 per month!  Yikes.

This doesn't count the times I would "buy" and my alcohol tab would include others doses of the poison.  Or sporting event, were the price of a container of alcohol is 5-6x what you can buy at the store. So this total might be a bit understated.

Now grant it, in the end I was a very high tolerance addict - it took me a very high dose of the drug alcohol to "feel" it.  The problem with that is.....keeping on the blog theme.........once I felt "it" I shot right through to being passed out or extremely tired and I want to go to bed to sleep.  What fun!

I noticed the cost of alcohol addiction has been increasing every year, not only are the stores raising the price, taxes are also being raised on the "elixir" of life in most counties and cities.  Alcohol is a serious source of tax revenue, no wonder they promote drinking alcohol as part of the fabric of the city.  "we proudly proclaim that we have 30 craft breweries within our metro area" - states one local city.  My personal cost of alcohol increased every year as I got deeper and deeper into the addiction.

I'll make it easy for myself - I spent about $10,000 per year drinking alcohol.

So I will say - I just hit the lottery.  I figure I have about 25 years left on this planet.  $250,000!
paid out in an annuity of $10,000 per year over the next 25 years!

Time to celebrate - I think I'll have a drink.  Just kidding.

I finished 10,0000 kettlebell swings in 30 days what do I do next?

10,0000 kettlebell swings in 30 days

I started this challenge on January 14 and finished this morning February 11 so I really finished in 28 days - I took three days off - right in the middle of the challenge.  So I actually did the 10,000 swings in 25 sessions.

All 10,000 swings were one arm kettlebell swings (1ASW) using a 16kg 'bell and a 20kg 'bell.
The max reps in one day was 500 and the minimum was 200 on the last day.  Sets of 25, 50, 75 and 100 swings performed in the early AM hours in a completely fasted state was my routine.

I have done this challenge a few times and I always enjoy the journey.  The break I took in the middle of the 30 days was needed and when I started back up I was refreshed and well rested. 

I strived for a perfect one arm swing on each rep.  I avoided sloppy reps at all cost so this took a bunch of concentration on my part as I did occasionally got to 100 reps in one set.  50 reps was my sweet spot as I could aggressively perform the set "hard style" with great form. 

Now the question is what do I do next? 

I was thinking about doing kettlebell snatches in high rep sets.  I was also thinking about doing the Viking Warrior Conditioning routine, which I was able to complete back in my younger days.  Kettlebell Muscle also makes me nervous as it is one of the hardest protocols I have ever completed, once with dual 20kg 'bells and once with dual 16kg 'bells.

I was thinking about getting back into deadlifting again in my life long quest to pull 405.  I know I am running out of time and I would have to really change my routine to even sniff that goal.  I was pulling singles with 295# pretty easily before I left for 3 weeks in the south.  My bench press was also going up nicely 195# for singles was going up smoothly.

It's been one year since I started intermittent fasting and Ketogenic nutrition - my body weight has stabilized at 180#'s but I feel the best around 175# with lower body fat.  Typically I was hovering in the 190-195# range over the past 5 years, and felt I needed a change - thus the IF/Keto plan.

Push ups, pull ups and body weight Bulgarian split squats were my go to movements over this past summer and I felt pretty strong. 

I need something to get me motivated, a new goal, a new challenge -

As I return home - I will think about this over the next three weeks as I continue my swings and Turkish get up routine.  I plan on getting back into the dead lift and bench press during this time also.

One thing for certain - I will never give up strength training. 

you chose to drink a highly addictive poison for fun

Alcohol - is a highly addictive poison. Our society drinks this poison for fun.  Social proof leads you to believe that the drinking this poison in a diluted form has many benefits, that is until you flip from the "normal drinker" to the feared and stigmatized dreaded "alcoholic."  You know, that other kind of drinker, the one you are never going to be, because you "can take it or leave it."  You know, the drinker in control, the moderation drinker, not that genetic disease carrying freak that has the "addictive personality." Your not the bum laying on the sidewalk in Las Vegas with a bottle in a paper bag begging for money as tourists walk by with colorful alcohol drinks in their hands.  In fact you may be the drinking tourist and smugly thinking - "what a drunken bum" get a job then you can party like me and enjoy the night life as a respectable drinker having "fun."  All depends on how you look at it.

90% of the adult population drinks alcohol.  90% of those people are addicted to the drug, 90% of those people will never admit they are addicted.  It is a socially acceptable drug addiction.  After all the government says it is legal - until you blow a .08 BAC while operating a vehicle - then your drug use is frowned upon as law breaking, and they court order you into the dreaded 12 step "program."  Thank God for Uber, it is much more classy to take Uber, only drunks take a yellow taxi home after a night of drug indulgence.

Here is an experiment - write down your reasons for drinking alcohol - 

I'll check in later to give you my list. 

Beer, wine, spirits, a cocktail, adult beverages -

Don't be fooled by the name.  It's a powerful poison and will shorten your life considerably.  It is also highly addictive, will debilitate your immune system and impede your concentration. It is a known cacogenic chemical.  It will systematically destroy your nervous system, your confidence, your courage and your ability to relax.  By the way in it's native chemical form it tastes awful and if too much is ingested will kill you and will cost you about $400,000 over your drinking lifetime if you are a moderate to heavy drinker. 

What does it do for you?  Here are the perceived benefits.

Helps me relax when I'm stressed
Helps me socially fit in
It tastes good, quenches your thirst
Is part of the celebration of holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and special occasions
Makes me loosen up and have better sex
Gives me confidence and courage
Helps me get over a unhappy event in my life
Makes me happy
Helps me fall asleep
Relieves my boredom
Rewards me for working hard at my job each day

Easy trade off - you drink an addictive drug and you get benefits.  You become a drug addict because it is socially acceptable and provides pleasure and relieves pain.

People get upset when I call alcohol a drug - they really get a red ass when I tell them it is highly addictive - they get downright nasty when I compare the addiction to alcohol to the addiction of other hard drugs. 

Here is the difference - alcohol addiction is a slow miserable death - opioid addiction is a fast usually painless death.  Both are drug addictions.

Cheers.