Ep 9: Obeying Jesus' most important commandments and useful nutrition information for recovery and life in general.

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.  

Transcript

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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 started spinning in the wrong direction there, who knows, man, these days anything could happen. You never know, man. You just, you wake up and you go with Yeah. That, I noticed, about a year ago, they had, uh, things have gotten so crazy that, in the United States Congress, they, they had, the congressmen, they all got together and they had this meeting. Uh, this hearing where they pretty much admitted that aliens existed, and everybody was just kinda like, what are we having for lunch? Yeah. Yeah. Well, no one believes anything anymore. You know what's everything? No one believes anything anymore. Everything's fake news. Is that what it is? Yeah. It was just like we, we were just like, yeah. So what I, I don't think they're interested. I think they came, landed and boom. Yeah. You guys, you guys are nuts. Like, yeah. Like there's nothing worth invading here or engaging with like you guys are, Matt, I think that just came. No, we're not getting in the middle of this. Yes. Yeah, ahead now. So how are things in the motherland, today? Yeah. Doing okay, pat? Yeah, it's, uh, kind of cloudy, gray, coolish days, so another glorious, uh, British summertime. Oh, actually it's been quite a nice summer, but yeah, it's a bit cooler today, which isn't the end of the world. Um, I've been out doing a bit of work and, um, and now I'm home and get to talk to you and talk about Jesus and addiction recovery. So everything's good in, in my world, mate, what about you? Um, well,, to paraphrase, of one of your, famous, great countrymen, Charles Dickens. It's the best of times and it's the worst of times. We are at the end of summer. You know how hot it gets here in the summertime. Okay. And we love the summer. We love the beaches, we love the water. We love going out, you know, we love the, the lush, the greenery. We don't even mind the heat until we get to the end of August. Then we're thick of it and it's like 97 degrees Fahrenheit, and, you know, falls right around the corner. But. That's the best of times because we've got the fall coming up football season, or as we say here in the south football, the ball. So we're all looking forward to it. So we're right here on the precipice. So we got the, the best of times fall's the best of time of year for me, but the worst is right here at the end of August. And one of the things that makes it the worst, not just the heat, but now we have this last little couple weeks of hurricane season and you guys don't get to experience that, do you? Uh, we had a hurricane, like literally, this isn't even a joke. We had a hurricane in 1987. People still talk about it now straight up. Is that right? Yeah. Well, the thing about hurricane season, this actually kind of tests, our Christianity or our, our paying Jesus. Because here's what happens, the hurricane, you start pay, you pay attention to'em at this time of year. They form off the coast of Africa. And so you hear, oh, there's an inves. There's a system that's developing out there. So we start watching. It's a couple weeks away, but what we're hoping is. If you live in the Gulf, if you live inside the Gulf, if you like Florida, uh, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, all the way around the Texas, the first thing we're thinking is, please God, let it go. Hit the east coast. So we just, we want it to take a right turn, you know, just subconsciously not even really think. You know, and it's, so, it's gonna 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 thinking there's somebody out there. Let it go hit Bermuda. Uh, you know, they turn up north if it comes into the gulf. Then we're on watch and we start thinking, 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've been through some very horrible hurricanes. I mean it's, it was like a bomb had dropped here, power off and you kind of get bombed back to the stone age. But then we start hoping it hits our neighbors. It's not what we're, you know, we're really not wanting to hit us, but, oh man, I hope that thing, oh, maybe it'll go to Houston. If it starts turning to the right, well, maybe it'll go hit Tampa, and then we get, then we get, oh, it looked like it's going towards Tampa. And then what is the first thing we 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 pray for the people that we've been hoping. We're gonna get hit by that hurricane instead of us. And I got to thinking, it's kind of like, the Bible verse when they ask, I think it was, uh, Matthew 34. Well, when the Pharisees ask Jesus, I think maybe Matthew 36 40 possible. Let's have a little look. Matthew 36. Matthew only goes up to 28, dude. Well then that's not it. It's 30. I know it's 36, 30, 36, 40, but the verse is the Pharisee Ask Jesus teacher. He's kind of trying to test him. He says. What are the most important commandments? So if you Google that. Yeah, yeah. I'm looking what bit of the Bible does the Pharisee ask? Jesus, what is the most important for moments? Have a little look, pat Matthew 22, 32, 34 to 40. So you were close, pat, let's have a little, not really that close. Well, you had the verses. Yeah. You just didn't have the chapter. So I think give, give yourself a little bit of credit. Pat. Yeah, A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I'm not the bible scholar, but what he says is the first, the most important, tell me if I'm reading, if I'm getting this right, is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart. That's the greatest, right? But then he says the second one, and this one is something I don't think people really pay a lot, that pay a lot of attention to what he may have been meaning. Then he says, and see if I get this right. Love thy neighbor as you love yourself, or love thy neighbor as I have loved you. Am I close? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Right? So to me, and I just started thinking about that. To me, he has given us a commandment that is virtually impossible to live up to.'cause I don't know anybody that does that. You may do that. Uh. I every day get up and I'm trying to follow Jesus. I'm trying to do what I'm supposed to do but who does? I just wonder sometimes if he didn't give us a commandment that he knew we could never measure up to. Just letting us know that, your grace, your salvation is not about you fulfilling commandments. It's through my blood that I shed for you, but this is what you should aspire to. Yes. I was wondering what your thoughts on that, because I don't do that. I'm not saying I shouldn't do that, but just like the hurricanes, I noticed the other day, I'm like, I am literally first I'm hoping this thing goes over here. I'm hoping it goes over here, but it goes into everything else in life, you know, is, well, it's like. That's the point of grace, isn't it? For me, like as I understand it, it's like, look, Jesus was the only one that could like fulfill the law. You know? I came to fulfill the law. Right? So he was the only one that could, like, he was the only one among us that was perfect. Right? He was the only one among us that was like without sin. So that's why he came, right? Because like no one else, no one could live up to the law. So he came, paid the price for our sins. But then what he does is he makes some strong, very strong suggestions about how we should, we should try and live. You know, I like really like, so the book that really turned it around for me in my faith walk was the Muff in Gospel by Brennan Manning And Manning talks about this extensively, right? He's like, you are gonna get it wrong. Like, that's the point. That's why he came. You know, but Christianity and being a follower of Jesus Christ is not about an enforced morality, but what it's about is like if you allowed a spirit to work through you, then you will be more equipped to like to live like that, right? If the spirit's within you. Right. But because obviously we have the flesh and. Like our, our humanity will never get it right all the time. And that's why we need a savior without our, and I think he talks, he kind of talks about this in Romans, right? Paul talks about this in Romans, but it's like, it's that fallibility that meant we need a savior. Because if it, if we didn't have that, we wouldn't have needed a savior. So the whole thing. Completes itself in that regard, right? It's like, yeah, like it's'cause of our imperfection that we need, that we needed Jesus in the first place and that's why he came. But then he tells us that we should try and live and then we do our best to kind of live up to that, you know, and that, but knowing that we'll always fail, like knowing that we'll always fail at some point, because that's the whole point. And that's why he came, you know? That's kinda what I was thinking. That's an excellent way of explaining.'cause that's what I was thinking. He's done two things there. He's given you something to aspire 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 in this direction, but it does. That's what it dawned on me the other day. It's like you're literally sitting there thinking, uh, you're gonna be happy if it's gonna 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 the neighbor means everybody, when I'm not doing that, a voice goes off in my head. So I think you're exactly right. He's describing that here's something to aspire to. You should shoot for that, but you're not going to hit it. That's why I came. So what you said was brilliant there. So, speaking of your brilliance, our episode a couple of weeks ago on overcoming when, you were talking about the first step, I got some comments. About that, that helps some people, that are going through recovery, beginning recovery, and oh, and by the way, if anybody, to our listeners, whatever platform you're on, there is a send a text button on most of the platforms. If you have a comment like these folks have. You have a question? I mean, if you have anything, if you're, if you know Jesus, if you don't know Jesus, if it's something about aic, what? Addiction, loneliness, anything that we like to give you some advice or discuss, send a comment and, we're able to, we will discuss it on here. If you don't have that on the platform or you're on YouTube, you can go to pat mccool.com, send me an email. Because we just have a passion to, help people out. And we have an awful lot of experience in being able to do it because we both did it wrong the first way. And that's how I've learned. That's how I've learned. So, so feel free to send in a comment, send in an email like these folks did, and, we would try. We won't mention your name if you don't want to, but we'd be certainly willing to discuss and do whatever we can in a discussion. But this post that you made that I thought was really important. Can I read the, it's a LinkedIn post. Yeah, go for it, pat. For Richard, and this applies not just to addiction, but I think it's very, it is very important that people that are going through recovery, but we'll do this and then you can, elaborate on it. It says, we wouldn't try to build a house without raw materials, so why do we expect the brain to function without them? Therapy, especially with clients in early recovery or those struggling with mood, compulsive behaviors or burnout. I'm increasingly drawn to the question, what's the system being asked to run on? We often talk about trauma, attachment, psychological patterns, all vital, but the biochemical foundations math. There are two brains that are undernourished, inflamed, or depleted. Simply don't have the capacity for the kind of regulation and reflection that recovery demands. 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 quality protein, many clients are stuck chasing motivation or mood that isn't coming back because the raw ingredients just aren't there. Omega threes, especially E-P-A-D-H-A from fish oil, help with inflammation, mood and brain repair. Some studies even suggest they support impulse control. And reduce aggression. I've seen real changes in clients when this is added consistently amino acids like, like L tyrosine. I might be pronouncing that wrong. No, that's right. H-T-P-D-L-P-A and thine can be game changers. And you've put in asterisk. When used carefully, they help replenish the neurotransmitters flattened by years of substances, stress or restriction. But they're not one size fits all, and they work best when used alongside professional support nutrition alone. Won't heal trauma or rebuild trust in relationships. But I've seen time and again, how stabilizing the body can give clients just enough bandwidth to start engaging with therapy from a place of strength, not survival. We need to keep expanding the way we think about recovery. Food, mood, and mood and behavior are linked and we ignore it that at our peril. Yes, that's brilliant. And something that I didn't really think about. Well, that's the whole point of it, pat, really is that like not many people do, right? So we know that, you know, addiction therapy is helpful, right? Like 12 step programs helpful. Yeah. Like there's lots of good stuff that can and does happen in those like that kind of psychological social approach, right? There's obviously strong. Like spiritual element and what that means to different people is different things, but you know, to us that's Jesus. Right. Um, and that is of course, like a, you know, a vital, you know, the biggest component for many Yeah. That get to be touched in that way. Um, but there's this whole like, biological component that just gets missed. Right. And, um, it's the, the building blocks of. Neurotransmitters, you know, it's what we put in our body. So you can explain addiction from like a purely like neurological standpoint. You know, we're talking about depleted neurotransmitters. We're talking about like a behavior that's, um, that's driven and governed by the midbrain, the limbic system that overwhelms logic, you know, emotions, trump logic every time, and that's why people end up doing things. Being driven towards doing things, which then even to them later on, make no sense. You know, so you'll hear the relapse. The guy that's just, you know, used a shed load of cocaine or, you know, been on a big, like alcohol binge and like, you know, woken up and like, you know, what have I done? 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 that from a neurological standpoint, it's like a brain that's like crying out for, you know, whatever it might be for something that it's learned, makes it feel a bit better. Right. Like it's very difficult for that brain to heal if you're not giving it the things that help it heal, you know? So you need to be fueling the brain, giving the brain what it needs to repair and to like, and to run like properly, you know, like to, you know, to allow what's called like executive functioning. So that's like the decision making, you know, to be able to make good decisions. You know, like I want to have a drink. Maybe what I should do is call someone. Maybe what I should do is pray. Maybe what I should do is go to a meeting. Maybe what I should do is contact my therapist. You know? But like that's, that all goes offline in a brain that's just not able to function properly.'cause it doesn't have the building blocks of that. Yeah, that makes, I go all the way back to the days when I was, doing the drugs, the drinking all 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 things that would make me feel better internally, it's, you know, it's time to go do the drugs, time to go do the drink instead of making yourself feel better. I mean, doing things that will actually make you feel better and the better you feel, the better decision making. Is that part of what you're saying there? Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's difficult to make healthy decisions if your brain's not working properly, you know? So what you end up doing is you chase the thing that will, for a short time, make you feel better like cocaine. So you in, you injected cocaine, right? I remember that from your book. Yeah. Yeah. So that is like this huge dopamine 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 governs behavior. It's the re the reward neurotransmitter. It drives us towards things that make us feel good. But for most people, that might be like a stake. Yeah. Like, you know, like a night, you know, walking by a river, you know, whatever. Like some, you know, like a normal human thing, but then you hit, you hit. With like something that releases that much dopamine and then you have a crash, right? So if you are not giving the brain enough, enough fuel to make a healthy level of dopamine, you know, then you'll automatically be drawn back to the thing that offers some hope of like you rekindling that level of dopamine again, right? So, so that's like injecting more cocaine, you know? And that's why eventually. You'll get to the point where the cocaine doesn't do what it did. That's why people are always chasing that first high pat. Yeah, because that first huge dump of dopamine is the first time you experienced that. Like, I mean, it's amazing, right? You know, like I was a crack smoker, right? The first time I smoked crack I was just like, you know, it was like just this almost like brand inden experience, right? But so you'll always be tasting that. Until you give the brain the stuff that it makes just to like start generating enough dopamine in a healthy fashion, you'll keep, you know, you'll keep chasing that. And then the other side to that is that like if you don't give the brain what it needs through the food, in fact you give it what it doesn't need. So what we see in early recovery, and this becomes normalized somewhat, is people are chasing the things that are like less aversions of the cocaine sugar. Like nicotine, caffeine, so they fill themselves up with that. We see that a lot. You know, like you go to an AA meeting, there'll be a lot of people smoking outside. Yeah. You go to like, I dunno, some other kind of convention, like, I dunno, a car sales person convention. You won't see that many people smoking outside. So like covering addicts, they're chasing all these things to try and like get some version of that, like dopamine hit. But it's like a dirty dopamine hit 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 to that. So you start giving your brain enough fuel to make enough dopamine and what you'll see is people, rather than like forcing themselves to stop drinking caffeine, even sugar or, or to smoke a bit less, smoking's a little bit more complicated, but like they will be naturally less drawn towards. Because their brain is not somewhere 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's gonna get some dopamine going here, man. We need to, you know, because it's got enough, it's got what it needs to like be doing that on its own, you know, given it what it needs. You the nail on the head when the, the ejecting of the cocaine? Uh, you know, I mentioned I wasn't physically, I was emotionally, but maybe I was physically, but when I ejected that cocaine, like you said, that was, I mean, that was an 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, and I never felt that way again. It, you could have turned right around the next day and gotten a better quality where you chase it, you're always chasing that, having that very fir I don't know if heroin was like that. Uh, but I, I never got that again. I just kept chasing it and kept chasing it. And you're talking about, I kept making one bad decision. They kept getting worse and worse. 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 or two o'clock, you didn't really think about it. All you were really thinking was trying to get that next hit or get back to that feeling again. So your mind, I guess, is, is programmed. So I think that's great information that you're saying the food staying nutritious because. Once I, you know, once I started, once I became a believer, started getting my act together, you know, which we're, we're not gonna rehash that, you know, we've talked about it or it's in the book. Um, I started exercising'cause I was, had gotten outta shape and so I started exercising and all of a sudden I started feeling better. I started going out and jogging. I started running. I started, um. You know, lifting weights a little bit and then I just started feeling better and better. And then it was a high to go out and 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. Right now, the thought of eating a steak is, is very thrilling to me. I mean, you know, it really is. I get excited about it, you know, I'm just like, oh, I got back then you didn't care. So, uh, all those normal, the things that would otherwise give you great pleasure in life are completely gone. Yeah. Yeah, exactly that. Right? So it's like I, I liken it to this. I explain it to the people I work with like this, right? It's like if you live on a rollercoaster with all of its highs and lows, imagine you lived on a rollercoaster for four years. Yeah. Like when you get off that rollercoaster, right? Like walking around the amusement park at a leisure pace, it's gonna be pretty dull. Yeah. Like it's not gonna be a lot of fun. 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 bit of pleasure from normal, pleasurable things, right? So it's like, and you have to allow, that's a lot often. There's like a very gray period after people clean up. You know, it's like nothing. What do you wanna do? Nothing. Do you know what I mean? Like nothing. Like nothing really offers you much pleasure and it takes time for that to reset. It could take 60 days, it could take six months. It depends how much you've been hitting it, but the help the brain to start functioning properly, to help it rebuild, to start it help to be able to generate enough. Neurotransmitters to promote a bit of functioning and to start to enjoy life again. You know, it, you know, giving it the right fuel is essential. So it's like protein 80 to 120 grams 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. Like it is, and it isn't, you know, it's actually not that, you know, if a, a chicken breast has, 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 off eating like natural foods. Right. But so like protein, healthy fats, you know, like fatty fish. 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 as well, you know, and that thing you can use, use like good quality Omega-3 fish oil. Yeah, that's, that's helpful. Yeah, that really helps the brain start kind of firing again. And, um, you know, I've, I've worked with guys that free fish oil. Yeah. So you're looking for something with the kind of, um, a good amount of EHE and DEHA and DPA in it. Um, yeah. And take, like taking that on the daily. Um, so the supplements not just the food.'cause I remember I used to take a, an omega, uh, it was like a gold Omega-3, I guess it was. Yeah. Yeah. You, you think that's good too? What about a, like a protein supplement if you, if you're not eating, not a protein supplement, but like a powdered shake or something like that? Yeah, look, they're a really good thing to fall back on. I often talk to people about using those things, um, as like a breakfast food. So like traditionally bread, like it's quite hard to find things that are full of protein for breakfast, unless you're talking like sausages and bacon and 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. Right. You know, they're not gonna fry some eggs every morning. So what you would need to help people avoid is like people would have. I mean, in your country, like people eat donuts for breakfast, right? That's like, that's like probably the worst thing you can eat for breakfast, for mental health. But over here, like we would eat like croissants. So you'd have a bowl of cereal. There's no, I mean, there's a bit of protein in the milk, but not much, right? So like protein shakes in the morning can't be helpful. Handful of nuts for your like healthy fats. A little bit of protein. A decent amount of protein in nuts. Yeah, just what, whatever, however you get it into, you, get it into you. If you're gonna have scrambled eggs on toast, like have a good quality, kind of like a dark rye bread with like pump and nickel, you know, like that's something like substantial like that. Yeah. And like, just so you, with that, you're giving yourself, you, you got some, some good quality fats in the, in the alk. Yeah, you've got lots of protein, egg white, you've got some complex carbohydrates, you know, in this kind of good quality heavy bread. Right? That's a good setup for the day. You know, eating a bowl of Captain Crunch and. A donut is not, you know, that's like the opposite of what you need for breakfast, you know, but like, so you, you know, it's helping people find ways and helping 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't eat like a pipe, you know, a lot of protein early in the day, I just get tired and I get really, if I eat a lot of carbs. I mean, I like, I like potatoes and things like that, but if I eat a lot of carbs, I'm crashing and 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 the morning, I'm not that hungry. I'm not gonna sit down and eat one of those, put me into a coma breakfast. You know, sausage eggs that just the thought of that makes me just want to go lay down and go to sleep. So I start every day with a, like a make my own fruit smoothie. I just put fruit in blender fruit with some low fat yogurt. Um, but I guess you could put a scope of, throw a scoop of protein in there, just like 10%, man. Yeah. To throw that in there. Yeah. Next thing you know what fruit's good, but fruit's got a lot of sugar in it. And even though it's naturally occurring sugar, you know, that's still like blood sugar spike and crash. Oh, so does it really? Yeah, so like I, I would say, you know, like throwing some protein powder in there is helpful. You know, definitely throwing some protein powder in there would be a good idea. So even with the fruit, even with the fruit, it has the sugar that's going to spike you. And then you have somewhat of a crash 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 of training, you know, and I, I, I've seen, you know, some great results applying it in my practice. But when you blend it all, yeah. Like, rather than the body, you know, needing to break it down. Which slows the release into the bloodstream 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 to consider. If you are gonna eat fruit in the morning, fruit's obviously a good thing, but maybe like eat it rather than drink it. That could be helpful as well. Um, yeah, blend, freeze it. You know, I put a bunch of bananas, strawberries, yogurt, some milk, apple juice, blend it up and just drink it. Other than that, I'm not that hungry in the morning. I'm not gonna sit down and I'm not going to. I'm not gonna just pile in a big breakfast, but what you're saying is making yourself feel good is, makes it a lot easier to re resist temptations to the things that are gonna make you. Relapse or it's going or it's gonna make you make a lot better decisions. Yeah. And it's like, look, there's this idea that early recovery, you know, early sobriety is supposed to be really hard. Yeah. You're supposed to have a low mood, like it's supposed to be agra, what we would call a graft, like a slog, you know, like a difficult endeavor, right. That, you know, you're essentially, you're gonna suffer. Right. And there is some truth in that, regardless of what you do, you know, cleaning up, getting sober, it's not the easiest thing in the world.'cause you know, often, like you kind of come, it's almost like you come to right after, like having been in a coma or like a trance or being possessed, you know, for like however many months or years. Right. But, um, if you give your body what it needs to start to, you know, to start to help the brain to regenerate and repair itself, right, it makes it a lot easier. It makes it a lot easier for sure. I said when I, uh. Started, you know, getting my act together as I started, you know, becoming a believer. But I'd started making these good choices and I started enjoying things that I didn't enjoy before. I enjoyed going out and getting a sweating walk. I enjoyed exercising. I enjoyed kind of e eating well, and so I was in a much better, the point is I just started becoming happier, not just because I was getting the Holy Spirit and joy in my life. That was the most, that was the most important thing, but physically. I was starting to enjoy things that I'd never enjoyed before. I was like, look, I feel a lot better doing this. I don't, you know, I don't feel sick and tired all the time. So then life itself starts becoming a much more enjoyable experience. So, well, yeah, having seen your story, 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 reckless behavior, a lot of adventures, a lot of highs and lows. Yeah. A lot of, you know, like car crash, you know, flying through the air in a car, landing upside down, you know, all that kinda stuff, right? Lots and lots of spikes. And then you introduce the drugs to that, and even bigger spikes, right? So yeah, like getting accustomed to doing healthy things, getting off the rollercoaster. It's a process, but it's, you know, if you stick with it, it, it, you know, it gets better and it, it, it, you know, it gets a lot better. Yeah. Um, I guess the other thing to talk about as well, you know, as I mentioned at the end of that post that you, you can't leave it out, is the supplementation. So tyrosine just a little bit on that. Tyrosine is a, uh, a dopamine precursor. So that is, that is the, the, the protein, the amino acid. Amino acid and protein is, is protein. Like tyrosine is the exact type of protein that your brain needs to generate dopamine. So like I, I've worked with guys who they're constantly preoccupied with thoughts of their addiction. You know, they, they may have been sober for some time. Constantly preoccupied. Right. Uh, they drink a lot of caffeine. They vape a lot. You know, they, they, they eat a lot of sugary food. Yeah. Now all of that is the brain saying, screaming out. For more dopamine. Yeah, like screaming out for it, right?'cause the levels are so low. So you take these kind of dirty dopamine hits, right? So like just to try it, you know, it's the brain's best effort based on what it knows at that point to try and get some more dopamine. If you give it the fuel it needs to make enough dopamine, people will naturally find themselves less drawn towards those things in a way that's quite intuitive. You know, it's not like. It's not like a a, what would you call it? Like an immense effort of will, you know, I must stop. I need to not, it's like actually, like I don't fancy, I don't fancy getting a donut in the afternoon. I don't feel like that, you know, 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 of thing. So Ty's team's good for that. Just run through these quickly, pat, for the listeners. Five HTP, serotonin. So a lot of kind of like anxiety and obsessive thoughts and sort of like, um, low mood, uh, will often be linked to a shortfall in serotonin. So you give your, you know, you introduce some five HTP that helps your brain to make some more serotonin. 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 up when you're doing a lot of drugs and Oh, yeah, man, that stuff's all over the place, you know, all over the place. You know. Um, I mean like, just I guess a bit of information that's useful. It's like, it isn't cocaine that makes you feel good. It's what cocaine gets the brain to do. You know, what cocaine does is it makes the brain release huge amounts of dopamine, you know? So like cocaine in of itself doesn't actually make you feel good, but it's what it does to the brain. You know, like everything we do is governed by neurotransmitters, everything, our decisions around food, our decisions around sex, our decision around drugs, our decisions around alcohol, our decisions 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 by neurotransmitters, you know? Um, so it helping your brain get to some sort of like stability is a really good thing, you know? So if you are, go on Pat. Sorry. No, you go. But like, if you are a guy or a girl and you're in early recovery and you're, you know, you're drinking like seven cups of coffee in the morning, you know, and then vaping all day, and then, you know, you want to hit like a load of sugar. You get in, in the evenings after your meeting, and the only thing you can think about is hitting a load of kinda sugary food, you know, candy, donuts, you know, whatever. Yeah. Then you might want to, you might wanna have a look at this. Yeah. You might wanna have a look at this. Yeah. Before you, you finished, you were theanine, you have theanine listed. You listed the first off. Where do you get, uh, where do you get the, uh, tyrosine? Oh, go to CVS go to Walgreens, you know, in this country. Um, you, the best place I would say to get it in this country would be to go to, um, would be to go on Amazon. Yeah, but be careful'cause there'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 get in food, it's better taking in a supplement or is there a way to get in food? The tyrosine, if you've got a really good diet, you can give your body everything it needs to do this. However, if you've got a serious depletion Yeah. If your brain is really like starving and crying out for these things, using some supplements is a good idea. Yeah. Um, like the supplements are. They're a bit of a shortcut. You know, they are a bit of a shortcut. Yeah. And that it can kind of go hand in hand, right?'cause it's like, oh, I've given my brain enough dopamine. Now I feel enough motivation to go 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 definitely be a bit of a jumpstart. You know, they can definitely be taking the supplements, learning what food that is in there. That DLPA, uh, you, it seemed like that was important. I have no clue what that, what is that? And where do you get the DLPA? Could you buy that in a supplement? Is that in food? Same. Go on Amazon. Go into, um, CVS or Walgreens. Yeah, like you'll, you'll find it. So, you know, it just seems like most of this stuff is in the food. You know, if you go back to the Bible and just see the stuff that God provided us to eat. Not all the stuff that we've manufactured. So much of the stuff we have now, it's just preservatives. It's pretty manufactured, especially in America. You know, you talked about Captain Crunch. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever seen the thing where the bottle of the box of cereal in the UK has like 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 did research on what's the good food that had all of these things in there, you mentioned thine, my wife, because this is not just for recovery. This is just basic day-to-day living and feeling good. Even just being a follower of Christ you wanna make good decisions, you wanna be the person that he wants you to be. You want to feel better. And not having these things can make a person cranky, you know, can make a person not make good decisions. The thine. I guess there's an ellp thine, but my wife was, was having trouble sleeping and she doesn't e eat the square meals like she should. I'm always,'cause she's always running around. She does a lot more than I do. You know, she just stays busy and, she wasn't sleeping and she wasn't head out. You think? And she started taking this L-theanine. Is that the same thing you were mentioning here? That's it, 100%. Yep. That's it. She started, bought it, the capsule, and she said, I used to take this in the past. So we ordered some and she started taking it, started feeling good again, started sleeping better, and it, it really helped her out having that in her system. So I noticed that when I looked in there, and I just think that it, the average person going through life, like I said, when I started, becoming a follower of Jesus, started exercise, started making good decisions, the more, the better shape I got into, the better I felt. The more I started loving things. Like I didn't care about a stake back then, but now when you see a stake, I'm sitting there thinking, that's something very pleasurable. The, all the things, once I started getting in shape and once I, when I say shape, I'm no underwear model, but I feel, uh, I just feel good both of the time. So I enjoy it, really enjoy things that I used to not. Enjoy. And I, you know, you've spelled it out pretty good there that a lot of your diet, not just in recovery, but just in day-to-day life, eating Well, it's like you said, that line of, you know, a Starbucks in the South is a license to steal, not just in the South, but in America. The line wraps around, you know. Coming through there and you know, you're getting your double, triple latte extra shot of whatever to kind of get you through the day at, you know, and probably maybe eating something sweet. But putting all of these things that you've mentioned into your body, not just helps in recovery. I think it just helps in day to day life. A hundred percent. 100% it, you know, it's just helpful for like mood and good functioning and you know, energy, all of those things. I think with the food, if you look at. Some of the, like if you look at the list of ingredients on the back of your food, I think a good rule of thumb is if there's anything on there that's got more than two or three syllables. Probably avoid if there's anything on there you can't pronounce. Yeah. Like probably avoid that, you know? And if there's anything in there that's got more than four or five ingredients, probably avoid that too. You know, some people, you know, some people just eat like Whole Foods, you know, and that's fantastic. It's not always that practical these days. But if you look at something like Captain Fun. You'll often, you'll see in grit, obviously, there'll be a huge amounts of preservatives, colorings, e numbers. You guys have much less regulation around what goes into your food, right? You know, we have the same problem over here, but you look at, you look on the back of like a food stuff, like caps and crunch, right? It will say, it'll probably say fructose, it'll probably say corn syrup. It'll probably say glucose and it'll probably say sugar. It's just all sugar, you know what I mean? It is just all sugar. Yeah. So it like being able to actually like decipher what's in your food is a really important thing, and I guarantee you some of those long. Words, you know, like you know, the mad kind of chemical, like seven syllable exaggerating a little bit, but like substances you'll see listed in like processed or manufactured food. Yeah. Then if you google some of those and look at like what that means and look at the effects it has on the body, I guarantee you you'll be in for a shock. I'll guarantee you, you'll be for a shock. Never, uh, thought it, it would have that kind of impact on recovery, but that just jumped out at me when I saw that should be so crucial that people should, I don't know if it's taught that much. No, it is not. It's certainly not everyday life. I can just tell if I've been eating well. I feel, well, I'm in a better mood. I getting a headache, the cranky or whatever. I can go back and go look at what I ate. I just went in and ate this, this or I ate the potato and I'm tired. So that's great stuff. I will tell you, uh, I learned kind of a way,'cause I know people have trouble in life, you know, with their. You know, what they're eating and how they're eating. And you, like you mentioned the steak. I won't eat a steak five days during the week, but I got a, I, at one point I had ballooned up to 240 pounds Now back in my drug days and drinking, I had kind of gotten overweight and it would go back and forth. You know, you start injecting heroin that way it's coming off.'cause you're not gonna eat, but you know, you're, you're not looking better. You're not feeling better. But when I got married. As we talked in the last episode, when my wife caught the big fish, um, she landed that big one man landed boom. You know, when, when she stepped in it. I started, just eating and you know, just having a good time. I wasn't exercising or anything I had, uh, but I ballooned up to 240 pounds. I weigh up right at about 180 pounds. Right now I'm five foot nine, so you can imagine 240 pounds. As a matter of fact, I still have the pants'cause they're, they're like a, a tent, you know, you could run them up a flagpole at an airport. To tell the helicopters, which way the winds were blowing. And, I'd have suits that I got to know the, the tailor very well.'cause I kept taking my, the suit, I had some fairly expensive suits, so I had to keep going. I keep expanding these suits. But then one day I went out. And, uh, we're gonna wrap up after I finish this, but this is just the way I learned to live life. I decided, alright, I've had enough of this. I can't even hardly move. I feel horrible again all the time. Um, and I went out to this track that I'd jog on. And I started to walk around and I would run about three miles. I could get out and tap out about 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 out there, work up a sweat and exercise, but I walked about a hundred, 200 yards. My back was killing me and I could barely move. And I just decided I'm gonna finish this one lap. And then I came back the next day and I did two. And then I came back the next day and I did three, and I'm kind of talking to people out there that may find themselves outta shape and you know that not getting into it, I just know how much difference it made in my life. Getting in shape, getting energy, eating well and exercising. Four, I know it. I was back up to the three miles. You know, but then I would kind of fluctuate a little bit because you would get on the kick where I would eat well and then not eat well. Well, I settled in, I read this book 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, these specific things and if you're really trying to muscle, I wasn't trying to do all that, but it really settled me into the theory behind this was you ate, well, you exercised, you did that six days a week and then you had to cheat day people Talk about that. You talked about you, you said you had. Had weight problems at one point, right? Yeah. I mean, yeah, for a long time. Up and down, up and down. Yeah. Yeah. But well, what mine was, uh, and it's not just the cheat day, that's just a little two ridges. I kinda live my life in kind of a, you had mentioned peaks before. I still like the peaks. It's just I get different. My peaks, uh, different things bring me the peak. So I will go four or five days. You know, as a comedian, I'm Friday 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 average person that does that five day week and then does the weekend, the point is if you take about four or five days out of the week. That's the day you exercise, that's the day. You eat well.'cause people wanna live. I mean, I'm holding my hand up flat. People a lot of times they don't want to, they don't wanna get in the valleys. But if you don't get in the valleys, you're not gonna get up into the peaks. And what I mean by that is go to the restaurants and where I live or where you live and they're packed. People are in there eating big meals for lunch. They just, they're constantly, I guess maybe wanting the pleasure of, of eating, but. You know, you're gonna be overweight, you're gonna be tired when you get to the weekend. It's not that big a deal. What I way I do it is there's four or five days. I'm just not gonna, I'm not gonna spend a lot of money on food. I'm not gonna spend a, I'm not gonna eat a lot of calories. I'm just gonna focus on eating well. But when I get to the weekend now, like a Friday or a Saturday, Saturday, I'll eat whatever I want. I will destroy, you know, if you, if we're getting pizza at my house, I'm getting mine. My wife's getting mine because I'm eating the whole thing. If we're getting, if we're getting fried chicken, cheese, getting the chicken, I'm getting it and I'm eating it. The point is, I don't deny myself that. I'm gonna have it. I'll sit there on a Wednesday night going, oh yeah, we're, we're gonna cook some ribs this weekend. But I don't eat'em. I'm not just constantly eating stuff to make my, you know, you see what I'm saying? That would keep me outta shape. Yeah. So that's just something I just wanted to throw out there. That's really worked for me.'cause I know people that have struggled with getting in shaping when you're feeling better, you know, you and I talked about it in an earlier, uh. Uh, earlier conversation how much better you're looking and feeling. And I didn't even notice you'd had, you know, you'd been losing some weight, but don't you feel mu much better? You feel a, a walk, you know, in the park is far more enjoyable than it was when you're struggling and you're tired all the time. But that's kind of what worked for me. I, I just kind of, um. It's not denying myself. I live a certain way when I'm doing things, and then I have those couple days and I'm gonna enjoy myself, and then I'll eat whatever I want to eat and I'll enjoy it. And the the funny thing is, is on that third day, you go Friday night, eating whatever you want, or Saturday you wake up on Sunday, you don't wanna eat the garbage anymore. Not the garbage, but you wanna go back to feeling the way I felt before I shoved that whole pizza 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 some balance, you know, and that's what I get from what you're saying. I think it's good advice for the people listening. Well, yeah, and the peaks. I still have the peaks that I have now are far, far higher than the peaks I had when, when I was doing it, with the deception of the cocaine and the drugs and those type of things. But that's fantastic information that you gave Richard. Uh, and we'll wrap it there, not just for people in recovery, but I think it's really important, for people that are in recovery, especially in the first steps. Put good stuff in your body and making yourself, feel good and. Google and research you're saying you can find those things in food, you can find them in what you're eating. And protein is, IM, is important. You see, I learned something that I did not know when I read that post so well, great information there, rich, and, we're gonna leave it there. And good talking to you. And then I will catch up with you next week and I think next week you had another, another post you had on here about inner child. I used to not like the word inner child, but it is something that I always thought that something that. From your childhood. You carry an awful lot of things from your childhood, and I think you're delving into that and that's something that I've always kinda looked into. So I think that will be, a great discussion. So anyway, appreciate all your great information, rich and I will see you next week. See you next week, pat. Take care. Bye. Take care.