Overactive security led to negative participant experiences at the recent event DAVELEARN, a “smaller learning conference” which took place at the GAMELAYER.fm studios from November 10th to November 14th, 2025, in St. Louis, MO. Sources claim there was an overactive security guard on site, who reportedly refused entry to participants in the event that they could not present their badge.
CEO of the event, Dave, made a statement an hour ago from the mainstage at GAMELAYER STUDIOS:
“Team DAVELEARN apologizes for the actions of our overzealous security guard. We received some reports late last night, November 11th, 2025, that they were refused entry for having the wrong type of badge. We outsourced security for this event, and it appears that the proper vetting process for asset selection was not completed. Our sources indicate that this employee was dishonorably discharged from their local militia. We are releasing any more specifics at this point, but rest assured, this former employee was reprimanded and is no longer with us.”
Images of the imposter have been recovered from HD security camera footage.
Sources earlier this morning (11:07 AM November 20, 2025), including potential DAVELEARN Conference attendee Sheila B. Robinson, revealed on the professional Social Media app LinkedIn that “[She] couldn’t get past security at the convention center without wearing [her] badge and lanyard. ([She] was holding it in [her] hand one day, and they hassled [her]).”
A response to the post was delivered at the front doors of GAMELAYER STUDIOS by the DAVELEARN team’s Vice President of Human Resources, “Dave the HR guy,” to a sizable and eager press attendance. Due to a significant magnetic frequency disturbance in the area, there is no audio or video footage available for that official statement. However, text-based copies of the address were captured on pen and paper in real time.
“Thank you for attending this press update. Team DAVELEARN has received additional information regarding the previous employee on our security team, who is known only as ‘DAVE’, who we have confirmed entered into the position under a false identity. Our sources indicate he was only admitting attendies whose badge included the word ‘SECURITY’ on it at the South entrance. We would like to confirm that this was not the direction that was provided by team DAVELEARN, and in addition, we would like to apologize for any negative attendee experiences. This man was not of sound mind; he believed he was a reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte XIV, who recently passed away on the 10th of March, 2023. It is our promise that this will never happen again at any DAVELEARN event.”
Sources on site who witnessed the apprehension of the Security Guard formerly known as “Dave” state that he was found digging through the ashes of the stump that was lit on fire during the DAVELEARN event. The man who self-identified as a reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte XIV began to yell that he was on a crucial and pivotal mission, collecting scientific samples of the remains of the fire that needed to be analyzed by the proper authorities in what he called the “MO cave-dweller community.”
A person walking down the street where GAMELAYER STUDIOS is located observed, “Why do all these DAVES look like clones. What sort of conspiracy is this?”
Hello! Thank you for reading, and I am sorry I have been a stranger. If you follow any of my social media feeds, you might have seen that I launched a Podcast last Friday. The launch was a success and included more than just a Podcast. I would like to share my experience starting a Podcast with a Newsletter and Marketing plan.
WELCOME TO PLAY
Do No Skip Analysis
Let’s be honest. There are a lot of podcasts out there, and the competition has just raised the bar. Instead of competing against my neighbor like I would have in 2004, I am competing with celebrity superstars from Conan O’Brien to Monica Lewinsky. This has been a slow progression, but the landscape has really changed over the last couple years.
This is why it is so important to really think out what you want your show to be about. It needs to be something you love, but it also needs to be niche and novel. The only way to pull listeners’ attention away from TV actors discussing what it was like to make their sitcom is to discuss something you really know or really like.
Which “Host” Platform?
Where you host your Podcast is not all that important to your listeners because you can link all the episodes as sound files via RSS to other platforms. That being said, each platform will offer you a unique experience around price, analytics, and storage.
My main criterion was unlimited storage for free. I don’t mind paying a bit to make the show, but I don’t want to pay forever to have it hosted because eventually I would probably end up stopping paying, not to mention I just do not want to spend that much money.
At the end, I had it narrowed down to Red Circle or Spotify. I love Red Circle as a host, and I really think I want to have another show on there soon, but Spotify recently acquired Anchor, and that brand has so much weight to it. At a certain point, I realized I was using my decision on which platform to choose to put off the launch of my show. So I just went with Spotify because it is HUGE, Free, and has unlimited storage. The last piece was that the analytics from Spotify are certified, so it would be easier to accept sponsors if that ever happens… You never know!
How Do I Record?
I started out using Adobe Podcast, and I really like that platform for recording podcasts. The interface is beautiful and intuitive. Unfortunately, the app crashed a lot, and I even lost some of my recordings. Also, the AI voice enhancer sometimes made me sound like I was someone else, and some of my editors even thought I had a third person on my show. I was shocked that Adobe did not perform, and that really is a first for me. I have grown to respect the Adobe brand, and I love it. Photoshop, Premiere, and Adobe Audition are all environment staples. I even use Adobe Audition to craft the more complex audio for the GAMELAYER show itself. I feel like Adobe Podcast has potential but it has yet to realize it.
I ended up going with Riverside.fm, and I absolutely love it. I am on the lowest paid tier, and the only thing I wish I had was downloadable transcripts (something I definitely want to have), but I think I have some other ideas on how to get those.
Marketing
This is a topic that I wanted to streamline on the cheap. I ended up using a free Buffer account, which lets me connect to up to 3 Social Channels. That’s not a lot, but I am thinking about where I want to be anyway. So far, I am at a branded channel at Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. However, I am not that jazzed about being on Facebook, and I might just post links on the top of that page and abandon it for Blue Sky. If you are interested, I would recommend following the Instagram because I am mostly going to produce REELS from the show. (In addition to the Podcast of course, which I share in the next section.)
(The most recent reels appear at the bottom of this post.)
Another thing I have done that I need to build out more is look into SubStack. I was going to park all of my transcripts there, but I have found it can do so much more, like generate a newsletter, build a community, and even have paywalls for monetized content. I have hosted that at www.gamelayer.fm
Links to the Show
Last but not least, I would like to share the apps that I have chosen to include in the show so far. Please reach out to me on LinkedIn if you want to see this on another app or if you want to be on GAMELAYER!. In this section, I will paste unique versions of how I can share my Podcast using this WordPress web page.
Pocket Cast
Pocket Cast is quickly becoming my favorite Podcast APP, second only to Apple Podcasts.
Apple Podcast
You can never overlook the app that started it all, Apple Podcasts! (I have not found a way to embed the player on WordPress, but I did get a QR code.)
Next up, we have Spotify, which now owns Anchor and seems to be the largest host for the moment. All the stars are posting their shows there, which really lends itself to longevity. Some features are missing for the small fish like me, but to be honest, I just don’t care.
This last one is just fun. It is an RSS feed developed right in WordPress, so that’s neat! It is not a stand-alone Podcast player, so it only works here on this web page, but I like it because it showcases how easy it is to just paste your RSS feed somewhere and create a Podcast player! So fun!
215 War Games for Humanity: Using Simulation to Understand the Other Side | Eleanor Ross –
GameLayer Radio
War games can be about more than conflict. They can be laboratories for understanding humanity. In this episode, David Kolmer sits down with Eleanor Ross – Creative Director @ExpertTheory to explore a different side of simulations and war gaming—one centered on people, perspective, empathy, and understanding.Eleanor works in simulation and war-game design, creating immersive role-playing experiences that help participants prepare for complex situations. Unlike traditional war games focused on weapons and battlefield movements, much of her work examines the human side of crisis: diplomacy, economics, information, culture, relationships, and decision-making.At the center of Eleanor's philosophy is a simple idea: people need to talk to each other more.A well-designed simulation can put participants inside perspectives they might normally dismiss or misunderstand. Instead of reducing another country, organization, or group to “the enemy,” players encounter people with motivations, histories, pressures, and beliefs of their own.David and Eleanor discuss how that process can challenge bias, encourage critical thinking, and help people understand why others make the choices they do.They also explore the craft behind making simulations feel real—from creative writing and realistic media to role-playing, facilitation, storytelling, and the suspension of disbelief.Eleanor shares stories from simulations involving Taiwan, agricultural warfare, resilience, diplomacy, government, industry, and national security. She explains why bringing people with very different backgrounds into the same room can be one of the most valuable outcomes of the game.The conversation also gets into an unexpected ingredient in serious learning: fun.Eleanor argues for bringing back “whimsy” and creating experiences people actually want to participate in. Creativity, storytelling, and play can be part of what makes learning memorable.In This EpisodeWhat war games and simulations actually areKinetic vs. non-kinetic war gamingWhy writing and storytelling matter in simulation designHow games can challenge assumptions and biasesHumanizing an adversary instead of demonizing themUsing simulations to prepare for diplomacy and negotiationCreating emotional stakes that make scenarios feel realWhat agricultural warfare simulations teach us about local consequencesWhy bringing diverse stakeholders together mattersThe role of AI in modern simulation designWhy realistic media helps create a suspension of disbeliefThe importance of the after-action review and debriefWhy work should include more fun and whimsyHow games might help us rediscover the humanity of “the other”A Central QuestionCan putting ourselves inside another person's decisions—even temporarily—change the way we understand them?For Eleanor, that's one of the most powerful possibilities of simulation.People on opposing sides rarely see themselves as villains. They have histories, incentives, cultural assumptions, fears, responsibilities, and their own ideas about the right decision.A thoughtfully designed game gives participants an opportunity to encounter that complexity.Perhaps the greatest value of a war game isn't learning how to defeat someone.Perhaps it's learning how to understand them.About Eleanor RossEleanor Ross works in simulation and war-game design with Expert Theory, where she helps develop and facilitate role-playing simulations across government, universities, businesses, and other organizations.Her background in languages, writing, theater, facilitation, civic engagement, and international experience informs an approach built around creativity, human behavior, and engagement.
I would like to close out by saying thanks for reading and post a widget that claims it will continuously update with the most recent Instagram Reels. So if you trust Good Ole’ Improvement Dave more than Social Media (Which I think you should.) you can bookmark this page and come back to it weekly to see what I’m up to. Or, of course, you could go to GAMELAYER.FM, but I am not thinking the Reels will live there at this point.
I recently conducted a test recording using Riverside.FM, and it exceeded my expectations. The platform asked dynamic, open-ended questions that really got me talking. Although it was just a demo, I had a blast creating it, and the end result provided a great description of my upcoming radio show, #GAMELAYER.
Riverside.fm Test Recording
Why Publish Unrehearsed Content?
Initially, I had no plans to publish my first experience with Riverside.FM. However, I was pleasantly surprised by its capabilities. It offered high-definition recordings for multiple participants and provided a range of video editing tools and open-source music. While I couldn’t add transitions to images or videos, I could fade music in and out. Overall, it was impressive for a free platform. As someone who loves using free software (much to the dismay of my computer engineer friends), I was thrilled.
What’s Next?
I’ve been working hard on editing the first episode of #GAMELAYER, which features a series of phone tag audio messages sent via text. I’m torn between using the original low-fi recordings to emphasize the casual nature of phone chats or enhancing the audio for a more professional sound. I think I’ll publish the high-quality version as a podcast and host the low-resolution version on the transcript page of my Substack newsletter.
Gamelayer.fm
I recently purchased the domain Gamelayer.fm but haven’t successfully linked it to my Substack account. Instead, it redirects to Substack’s main page, which isn’t very useful. I’m considering building a landing page with Parallax animations on Amazon AWS, but I’ve read that the process might be similar to linking to a Substack account, which could be just as challenging. For now, I have some ideas, but they’re still in development.
Build It
Currently, my focus is on recording the show. However, I might need to reach out to experts to help launch the webpage. Alternatively, I can let the podcast distribute across platforms via Red Circle for now and work on the webpage after the show’s official launch.
“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”
I recently made a short simply thanking people who are supporting me and updating the world on what I am working on. I posted it on LinkedInhere.
The Post:
THANKS all Around today! 🙏 🫂 Thanks to Matthew Pierce 🎦 for sharing the wisdom of just hitting the play button. Thanks to Betty Dannewitz 📻 for getting me on the RADIO SHOW train. Thanks to Paul Smith ♟️ for talking about his “labor of love”, making games.
The Outcome
People who do not follow my blog liked and commented on the post. People in my organization gave it a thumbs up and a heart. My mentor sent me a text and told me the post was very nice. When we give credit where credit is due, and we say thank you to those who have helped us, we build out a network. We build community.
“If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?”
Unless we live in a monastery, we all have busy lives, and it’s important to find time to do less.
1. Monastery or Mayhem? ~Finding Balance in the Game of Life
So, just to be clear, I do not work at a monastery, and I have chosen to generate offspring. So for me, it is crucial to build in time for doing less. It’s crucial to build activities into our schedule that don’t really have any purpose other than leisure, fun, relaxation, or recharging our batteries. Last month, I took some time off from work because my daughter wanted to ride the carousel. So I booked time into my schedule to do that, and we entered the game-layer.
2. Quest for Gas: The Pre-Game Adventure
We were riding the merry-go-round, but let me back up. I picked her up from school, and we were driving to the park that had a historic merry-go-round. I needed to stop and get gas. At the time, I had already started recording for this podcast. I was playing an audio text message game of chess with my friend Sarah. She had expressed anxiety about being on a podcast show, and when I asked her to record a message that says “play chess,” she ended up sending me a three-minute recording about how she was doing that day and slowly phased in the statement I was seeking. Naturally, I just texted her back, thanked her, and then created my own audio message, thus beginning our chess game podcast via text message audio recording.
3. The ICEE Expedition: Fueling Fun
As I was driving to get gas, I got out of the car and recorded a message back to Sarah. Then I went in with my daughter and bought her an ICEE, which is a very special treat in our world. I sent the audio message, not knowing that in two days my new iPhone would automatically delete it. We went to Faust Park, and I purchased three tickets each to ride the carousel repeatedly. I made videos of the carousel, and later my daughter commented on how we weren’t in the videos. I created videos about the firsthand experience because I was in the game layer; I was focused on the process and the environment more than the faces of the people around me.
4. Emotions on Replay: The Carousel Connection
What struck me the most about the experience of riding the carousel with my daughter was obviously the emotion on her face, but that was for my soul. I didn’t want a record of that to be posted on my blog or captured in my podcast. I did take a lot of pictures of her, and there is some video of her riding the carousel, but I’m not going to share that footage here, and that’s intentional.
5. Soundtrack of Play: The Symphony of Joy
The reason this moment struck me to my core is because I was creating time for fun. I was planning play into my schedule. What struck me the most about the experience was mostly the sound.
There was the canned music in the beginning, which was overpowered by the mechanical sounds of the ancient carousel lumbering across its hub. The second round on the carousel also had canned music, but it was a different song—maybe a better song. But the third round was the best. The operator fired up the old Orchestrion, a mechanical instrument slightly bigger than a piano that can synthesize an entire orchestra with reels, xylophone, real drums, real chimes, and even real trumpets.
(Now I wanted to call that a glockenspiel which does seem like a better name, but apparently a glockenspiel is just a xylophone with metal bars.)
This is the experience that I had come for—not spinning around on an old, ancient wooden horse—although I did enjoy that significantly. It was the machine—the small machine that didn’t dish out a synthesized audio recording from a hard drive. It played; it had analog motors with sticks that struck objects. It was a physical representation of the GAMELAYER.
6. Rainy Day Revelations: A Walk Back to Base
After we got off the merry-go-round, my daughter and I were outside walking back to the van in the rain. I noticed a different energy about her. She was commenting nonchalantly about the pavement and the grass. And she turned around and looked at the building that contained the massive artifact of play. She said something that, to a six-year-old, is a comedic masterpiece: something about those people getting to live in there—that must be so fun! I agreed with her even though I knew I wasn’t understanding that statement on the level she was.
7. Heart-to-Heart Co-op: Building Bonds Through Play
My daughter turned and told me that she loved me, and I told her I loved her too, because I do. She asked me to carry her, which is basically her way of asking for a hug. So I carried her through the rain back to the van, and we spoke openly and freely, and our hearts connected through our words. And in the tone of her voice, I could tell that I had made a difference. I had put her needs ahead of my needs; in that way, we became better friends—we became closer. I built trust with her; I made time for her, I created empty space so that she could play.
8. The Missing AudioQuest: ~ Will Sarah Save Our Game?
Oh, and the audio recordings that my phone deleted? I think Sarah has those—or at least she said she does! We’ll see if she makes the choice to share them back with me so that I can add them into our audio-chat-message cat phone tag game of chess radio show episode of GAMELAYER.
Thanks Perplexity
I would like to personally thank Perplexity.ai for helping me shape this up for readability without changing my message, writing style, nor tone.
“What’s the passcode? Carry me. Carry weary.” [What I mean to say is I want a hug from you daddy.]
Last month I presented for the first time at a conference. I presented at the Learn Conference that was held by my local ATD chapter in St. Louis, MO. I wrote this a week after presenting but it has taken me a month to process this and get this post to where I want it to be. I have narrowed this down to three main points:
Attend the Conference for free
Slightly Heightened Status
You Connect more to ideas and people
Why Present at Conferences?
What I Learned
I have recently developed an itch to present and wondered about how that would feel. I was anxious before the conference. During the conference, I was surprisingly relaxed and after the conference, I was relieved to be on the other side of it. By the end of the day, I was exhausted. It is not the presenting that wore me out though, it was the standing, the waiting, the meeting new people, and holding professional conversations to the best of my ability. Now that I have the first one in the bag and am relatively unscathed, I want to share my experience and the benefits I see around presenting at conferences.
Attend for Free
Let’s talk about the low-hanging fruit first. The main payment for speaking at a conference is that you get to attend that conference for free. I never really thought much about this because my company paid for any conference I attended (which I should add is a limited number per year.) Maybe this says something about how much I am willing to pay for my own personal and professional development. I prefer to take the perspective that I am a frugal person. There are plenty of ways for me to improve on my own. Be it, online, the library, the Libby app, linked in learning, (and let’s be honest, the largest LMS in the world, YouTube.)
The benefit is not necessarily that you can attend for free but that you can afford to attend more conferences. So, I don’t pay for the conferences I go to, but my company only sends me to so many per year because there is a budget. I can stretch that budget further if the entrance ticket and part of the food board are already paid for.
There is a hidden benefit I just learned about too. I applied to speak at Training Magazine’s Training Conference & Expo in Orlando in February 2025. I was not accepted but put on standby. Now I thought this meant rejected but after some conversations in my professional network I learned that “Standby is Good.” Not only do you still have a shot at presenting at the conference, but you get into the show at a discounted rate.
OK, so free stuff, that’s nice.
Slightly Heightened Status
I should start here by saying that I do NOT perceive myself as a person who is motivated by status. In fact I see people who crave status as the opposite of those who peruse quality of work or seek out the truth. So, I am not naturally motivated by status.
My friend Jazmin Webster (President Elect of ATD STL) let me keep the sign!
One thing I suppose I never really noticed or thought about was that people who present at conferences are sort of the bread and butter of the event. They are creating a draw for people to attend. I have to admit I always understood this on a logical level. However, after being a presenter at a conference I had a different perspective on the value presenters add. People walked up and thanked me for my efforts and there was a buzz in just that. Sure, an unnecessary boost to my ego, but also a healthy development of my sense of self-worth and overall confidence.
In the same way, I feel like I held myself up in a different way while at the conference. There must have been something different about the way I was moving through the space. I am going to make this point by picking on a new professional connection I have. Two years ago, I walked up to the Keynote Speaker at the same event, after she gave her message and said, “Hey, I really liked what you said.” She politely smiled and thanked me and then slightly turned away from me. It wasn’t her; it was me. I was approaching her, probably standing too close, and didn’t add anything to the conversation other than I liked her. Sort of creepy, weird, awkward, yes, and maybe verging on stalker.
Who was this mystery woman you ask? Well, Justine Froelker is a speaker and therapist who has made a name for herself both locally and nationally as a training facilitator, speaker, and author. Well, she also presented this year at the same event, and when I saw her I remembered that awkward time I went to compliment her and then found I had nothing to say. I walked up to her while she was quietly enjoying a salad alone at the vendor table ATD had provided her to market her services. I smiled and said hello and introduced myself. She asked if I was a presenter and then we started a real conversation about our lives. That’s my whole point. It’s not that I approached her and had something to say, it’s that she could smell it on me. I held myself like a presenter and somehow, she just knew. (I promise I didn’t say, Hey I’m Dave I’m a presenter.) You could argue that I have grown a lot in my personal and professional development simply by rebooting this Blog and pouring my soul into it, and you would be right. I would argue that more than that my identity was altered because I had been selected to present.
You End Up Connecting More
Connecting more dots
Connecting with more people
I have saved the best part about presenting at a conference for last. This was a selfish choice, I should have led with my best point, and the one that would benefit you the most. As I have written previously:
So, I share that to simply point out that I am not afraid to break my own rules.
However, if you are still reading now you will learn about the best part of presenting at a conference. Having gotten up and presented in front of a crowd at the conference was a hit. It jazzed me up and gave me a strong buzz. I was in good spirits and overall, just in a great mood. This landed me in the growth mindset and when I attended other sessions, I was more vulnerable, more open, and more engaged.
For example, when I attended the amazing session on Gamifying business strategy by Caitlin Johnson from Bold-Bird Consulting. I spoke up in the session and shared personal information that I might not have shared if I was only an attendee. In addition, I spoke with Caitlin after the day was over at the networking event hosted for presenters and we think that we might be able to collaborate at some point.
The reason this all sparked up was because what I shared about myself was a missing piece in her process. I am an explorer in her language, and the exploration factor is her weakest link and what she is leaning into now for personal growth. I am not saying I don’t learn anything at conferences I don’t present at. I do learn at those conferences. I think the difference is the baseline mindset. Will I continue to get more out of conferences even if I don’t present at them? Maybe. Or perhaps sometimes I will and sometimes I won’t. I don’t know. What I do know is that I am still relatively new to all this conference going considering my age. Why didn’t I go to these sooner? Why not quote the Talking Heads here and share:
When I attended my first national conference in 2023 it was also my first time in Vegas. It made such am impact on me it revived this VLOG and got me on a new path. I had a breakthrough when I wrote this:
As I said, it was my first time in Vegas, and I was good, I didn’t gamble, I didn’t get sleazy and I only drank alcohol that was free (#Principles)! DevLearn was a force of nature and the whole week can easily be summarized as over-stimulation. Cognitive overload doesn’t begin to describe what happened to me that week. I will share that I didn’t hold back either. I walked all the way from the southern tip of New Vegas up through the desert to New Vegas to see the Zappos building and the Neon Sign Museum, and I would like to curate a post just on that experience. …Yet, in all of that frenzied madness, I attended a session by Renee Boydo. I entered that training room and a calm came over me.
I met Boydo the night before at an impromptu dinner I saw on the conference app., she confided in me that she was terrified because she was presenting for the first time and she asked everyone at that table to go so she wouldn’t have to present to an empty room. The next day, I went, she was calm she was collected, and she stated referencing her work as a leader, “My thing is that I just keep saying ‘It will be alright. It will work out.’” She presented a smartphone app she developed with a third party to train school bus drivers. In the class she shared that she had never presented before, she was terrified, but then came her light that “it was going to be alright.”
Conclusion
I didn’t know it then, but Mrs. Boydo planted a seed during that session. She lit a light in me. I saw that she was throwing herself into unbridled improvement. She was forcing herself out of her comfort zone in the name of learning and in the name of sharing her insights with her community at large. I didn’t want to admit it, but I wanted to do that too. I wanted to be like her. Now, I am writing this so I can share it with her and tell her my version of the story, so I can thank her for that.
Then later I attended a session by this lady named Betty Danowitz on Podcasting. Well, that whole thing is definitely for another post. Long story short, I started listening to her podcast and then started chatting with her, and I ended up as a guest on the show. Then Betty and her friends who are now my friends pushed me to present at a conference. It was ✨Kassy LaBorie who said, you need to apply to speak at conferences, so I did. I am forever grateful to Kassy. Now there is no turning back.
It has been months since I posted on this VLOG, and there were points last year when I posted daily. I had multiple ideas for April of 2024, and they are just sitting in their folders waiting to be developed. So, Now that it is near the end of June I am going to put together a post. It might not be my best post, but it will be honest. I believe I have started to struggle with why I created this Vlog. I have identified here that I have not focused on self-care and analysis paralysis has set in.
Strange man in black hood and gas mask on the background of mountains, around smoke, fog and radioactive fallout. Concept of environmental pollution, chemical disaster. Ecological catastrophe. AdobeStock_499292144
In April, a theme that played out almost across the board was Nuclear Radiation, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I am glad I paused to think about it and I really talk about it in the videobelow. So, the purpose of this post is around self-care. Identify what is holding you back or causing you analysis paralysis and call it out. Name it and talk about it.
ATD ICE 2024
Last month, I visited New Orleans, Louisiana for the first time. I attended the largest annual conference held by the Association for Talent Development. Luckily it jogged me out of the funk I was feeling about the “month of nuclear radiation”.
I do not know if there was a theme of self-care at the conference but I feel like there was. Maybe I think that because I noticed those messages because I needed them, but It seems like self-care is becoming more talked about as behavioral health becomes less stigmatized. I think this is great, and I keep telling myself I should meditate more or go to therapy, but instead I create videos at work, take care of my kids, rebuild bathrooms, and write on this blog… you know, live my life.
DEAR WORLD was at the event and “X” himself led multiple openings to keynote speakers, and short of Daniel Pink I think “X” did the best Keynote talks. He was honest, he was fresh and he had a clear purpose at the event. I ended up getting a “brain tattoo” and I am glad I did. You can read about it on my LinkedIn post here:
In this video, I speak to the fact that I have not posted in a while and I reflect on my apprehension to do so. I suffer from analysis paralysis and I bring up the irony that I have attended a few training sessions and listened to numerous podcasts on Imposter Syndrom created by my mentor/friend Betty Dannewitz. (She called me on a cell phone, and she said we are friends… it’s a thing.)
Supporting Video
In this vlog post, I talk about how April had a theme of radioactivity, and how nearly everything I did that month was related to nuclear radiation. I had the footage up front of the field trip and I put that video together separately because one of the students on the field trip is actually an Improvement Dave fan. I know it’s crazy, I have fans. I didn’t even know that.
This year I am focused on integration, and so far I am not sure I am doing a great job at it. I feel like the blog posts I have managed to create are long-winded, winding, tangled and disconnected. I feel like last year when my word for the year was Consistency I posted frequently and the posts were short, straight to the point, and therefore had a clear message. Or maybe I posted more so I was less focused on each specific post.
I recently shared this post (Close the Loop) with a new colleague and friend, ✨Kassy LaBorie. Her feedback was very telling. “David you are obviously intelligent, maybe a genius, but you need to make the message clear.” Well, I am paraphrasing, but that is the gist of what she said. (Thank you Kassy, you are a good friend.) She is right, I need to get back to why I started the blog, to talk about Instructional Design. ID work is about learning and the message needs to be clear. So, here it is.
The Point
I need to focus on simple outcomes. I need to get to the learning moment upfront of each post. So, if people only read the first paragraph they get the point. In this post, I did that. I went on and on supporting the “BIG IDEA” but I think I did less of that and all of what I said is pointing back to the idea that I need to focus on self-care because posting this was hard. I have suffered from analysis paralysis AGAIN. I fell back into my old rhythm. I can be integrated but I can not let go of consistency. It’s not one or the other it is both, and that’s the point.
I need to keep on stepping. I need to think less. I need to get out there.
There are loops all around us. Cycles that gain power when they are closed loops. All of these loops are connected to other loops and if a loop is changed it has downstream effects. Life itself depends on these loops, and our lives are enriched when we identify these loops and make efforts to close them. A sentence that is only started does not carry a message, but a completed sentence can effectively transfer a thought from my brain into your brain.
Seeds and Butterfly Lifecycles
My mom started a hobby a long time ago of planting the milkweed plant that attracts Monarch butterflies. Every year she purchased more plants and planted them on the path in the backyard. After we had children, I started collecting the seeds of these plants. When I planted these seeds, I completed a loop and now have an endless supply of seeds that attract Monarch butterflies.
In turn, these plants support the procreation of Monarch butterflies and increase the number of these amazing creatures on our planet. This in turn increases the number of pollinating insects on our planet, which I should not have to tell you is a good thing.
Moving Dirt in the Real Universe
This will be like MINECRAFT but in the real world
Minecraft Prelude
My son loves Minecraft, just like most 8-year-olds in 2024. I had heard about the game but didn’t understand how great it was until I went back to school to study Instructional Design. The power of Minecraft is that no matter what mode you are in, be it creative or survival, the game is based on you creating items from raw materials.
The Threat of Death Creates a Loop
Creative mode is much more open and the options are endless, but as my son has shared with me, survival mode is more challenging and proves you know how to play the game. You can’t die in creative mode, but in survival mode, you can.
When your character dies and is born again in a game you have closed a loop. Without that loop, the game is less interesting and less challenging, and as my son explained playing in creative is less impressive. It is more impressive to see a player do something amazing in survival mode because it displays that they really know how to play the game.
Minecraft as More than a Game
Now, for the uninitiated who do not live around children or who have never entered the Minecraft world, I want to open this up a bit. Yes, Minecraft is a video game that can be played alone or socially online. Yes, you can play in survival mode where you have to gather all of your resources and can be killed by “mobs” (that is what you call enemies in the Minecraft Universe).
Here is the part you might not be aware of. The new generation watches others play Minecraft on YouTube more than they play the game themselves. My 5-year-old and 8-year-old know more about Minecraft than I knew about anything when I was that age. Creators are now using Modified versions of Minecraft to create Television Shows. When my daughter was 4 years old she said, “I like that show (Mikey and JJ), I like watching that more than Disney.” This was completely unprompted and it really caught my attention. I mean, better than Disney? really?
Yes, because it is interactive. The players in this show are doing things that the audience can do because the audience is made up of users! Instead of watching your older sister play the game, you can curate playlists on YouTube of your favorite designer crafting things that interest you.
The Metaverse Has Arrived
Many people think that the Metaverse is a string theory abstraction that only high-level mathematicians believe in. If you are thinking of the Metaverse proposed by comic books and action movies then those people are maybe right, possibly. There is, however, another way to perceive the metaverse, a way where it definitely exits, and that is the worlds that we create in online games. We often reserve statements about the metaverse to augmented reality (think Pokemon Go) or even virtual reality (see image below), but on-screen games can be included as well because they are worlds rendered in a virtual “3D” space.
Bust of Apollo equipped with VR headset. Metaverse concept with copy space. 3D rendering
The network of online worlds created by the Minecraft community alone is nearly unimaginable, and that is just on the Minecraft platform. (I tried looking this up but only found that a block in Minecraft is equivalent to a meter, so if you find this let me know!) As interesting as the metaverse is, it is not a place in the real world, and I do not want my kids to live in a mental space where all that they know and love is based on imaginary objects. When you close a loop in the metaverse it does not connect to a loop in the real world. This imaginary universe of unbridled creation and design is beautiful, and part of me wishes I had something like that instead of the locked-down side scrollers of the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). There is another part of me that is very glad I did not grow up in the age of Meta-connection.
Pre-Metaverse Games
SAO PAULO, SAO PAULO – BRAZIL – AUGUST 13, 2023: Old NES Nintendo video game, with two-button control Nintendo Entertainment System 1985, 80’s, joystick gamepad console Black Studio Background
I had Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and Megaman, and these were fun games, and they were hard games. It was their difficulty that made them compelling. When you died you didn’t just lose items and go back to the building, you had to start the game over. There was no save and this made the gaming experience different. Indeed, they were not connected to the internet so the term Metaverse might not apply to them.
What makes Minecraft compelling is not as much of the difficulty but the novelty of creation, the beauty of the design, and the sublime ways we can interact with these worlds almost seamlessly. I want my children to benefit from these mind-enhancing experiences, but I also want them to have a solid grasp of the real world. So, when I had a hands-on project in the back yard I told my son, “This will be like Minecraft, but in the real world.”
One way of looking at what I did here is that I was closing the loop. I connected the design ideas of Minecraft with playing with dirt in the backyard. They are very different in many ways, but one could argue that they are more similar than different. Closing the loop is about integrating all the aspects of our lives and effectively transferring skills from one part of ourselves to another. Digging in real dirt has different challenges than digging in the Minecraft Metaverse. You can’t dig straight down to solid bedrock in several minutes no matter what your shovel is made of. (Not even an enchanted diamond shovel will help you in the real world.)
The Moment I first Uttered “Close the Loop”
I was still digging around in the backyard, and my kids had completely lost interest because somehow digging real dirt is more difficult and less rewarding in terms of instant gratification than in Minecraft.
My first idea was to dig out the area of our backyard in the far back. We have a rough makeshift firepit that I threw together with blocks that I found digging around our various beds and gardens of our 1-acre lot. My plan was originally to dig out a half-circle from the berm right next to the fire pit so that people could effectively sit on all sides of the pit. (I soon realized that this plan would not work because I had the current make-shift pit on an easement and I don’t want a permanent firepit in a space where the sewer company may dig, but that is a story for another post.)
Where to Throw the Extra Dirt?
The original question was where should I place the dirt I have removed? The answer was to place the dirt on another part of the berm that stretches across the back property line of our yard to make a ramp that we could ride bikes on. This idea of taking dirt from one project and placing it in a way that benefits another project was to me “CLOSING THE LOOP”. Instead of placing the dirt where it did not benefit another project I was benefiting two projects with minimal additional work.
Fires of Wood
The fact that this project is for a fire pit offers another example of closing the loop. We purchased the house right next door to my parents, so between the two families, we have roughly 2 acres of land, with a LOT of trees. So there is a limited supply of good hardwood for our indoor fireplaces, but an almost endless supply of wood to burn.
This is why I cobbled together this rough fire pit, to burn off the extra wood. We could pay someone to haul away the wood, but instead, we burn the wood off ourselves. This gives us a nice place to sit in the backyard (and pretend we are camping), but it also gives us free fertilizer for the yard.
The ashes from the fire, also called “pot ash”, are very rich in phosphorus, which is a vital nutrient for the roots of all plants. So keeping the wood, burning it, and laying it in my yard completes that cycle, it closes the loop.
Carpe Diem Dicey Bones
The events of this post happened at the end of October of 2023. During that Halloween season, I went to the pop-up Halloween Spirit store and bought a lifesize skeleton to hang on the spiderweb in our front yard. I named this plastic replica “Dicey Bones”. The skeleton is a universal symbol of death.
This was October when I was gearing up for No Shave November.
Death is our final destination and death is the final loop we will close in our lives. We can choose to dwell on the negative aspects of our mortal existence, we can focus on how our days are numbered. Or we can celebrate the days we still have. We can seize the day, suck the sweet marrow out of life and live our lives to the fullest. To do that this year I am focusing on integration, I am closing as many loops as I can to integrate all of my selves into a single unified drive forward. As the Japanese say “Zen Roku Wosusogu” or Focus your energies. Less I fall victim to a non-eventful life. To laying on my death bead and thinking “I would feel content if I would have…”
Conclusion
So, to summarize, this post explores the concept of “closing loops” in various aspects of life, and how the closed loops benefit from other closed loops. Trying new things is great, but closing the loop is about completing tasks that you have already started. By recognizing and completing these loops, we enrich our lives and create meaningful connections. Through examples like planting milkweed to support butterflies, playing and integrating Minecraft concepts to enhance our understanding of design thinking, and repurposing dirt efficiently for simultaneous backyard projects, I have attempted to shed light on the interconnectedness of our actions and downstream effects. Embracing the concept of closing loops becomes a way to celebrate life, recall the importance of seizing the day, and integrate all aspects of ourselves.
I am choosing a word for each year and this is my post for 2024.
The ending of 2022 was about Honesty, mostly with myself but also with other people.
Then 2023 was about Consistency. I spent the year building up the consistency in my visual brand, teaching myself to model in 3D, and posting what I learned while I learned it in a 30-day 3D Model Challenge. In August I consistently posted for St. Jude charity with my Push-Ups for St. Jude where I did 50 pushups a day and they were not always pretty, but I posted all the videos anyway and raised over $537 US. Then in September, I went cycling as frequently as I could and posted as many videos as I could for my Consistently Cycling More often in September 2023 series. I received feedback from my English-speaking friends from the UK that biking is not used for the act of cycling in proper English so as to not confuse my English friends and colleagues I changed the title of those halfway through, so the early ones have “Biking” in the title. That was not very consistent of me!
Sprinkled around the year I posted about my health journey and even summarized the whole thing in my final post of 2023 Consistently Well.
Throughout the year I learned a lot about consistency. About what it meant to post to my blog consistently. How to consistently show up for my kids and my family. The main thing I learned was that consistency was less about a 30-day challenge, or posting every day on a blog. Consistency was about finding my true self and being that authentic person all the time. It is funny how it just tied back to my first annual word of honesty in that way.
And at the end of 2024, I knew I wanted a word about being complete… Something about completing things, Completing the cycle, or Closing the Loop. However, the word complete itself implies too much desire to finish a specific task. It implied so much around the idea that things are not just complete the way they are, that I am not complete as I am. That is not where I wanted to take this discussion. So, later I came up with the word connection or connected and I liked that word. That is until I remembered we are building an intranet at work and probably calling it Connect or Connections, so I wondered if my subconscious had just picked up that language from that project, and wanted this project to be separate from that. …So, it was New Year’s Eve and I still didn’t have a word I liked.
Then on New Year’s Day, I did some YouTube Yoga with my wife. We like to practice 30-day Yoga challenges with Yoga with Yoga With Adriene. While doing yoga Adriene called out the word of being integrated. Having the movement, the breath, and the mind all integrated, and at once I knew that was my word for 2024.
May 2024 be my year of integration.
Integrated
Improving my process
Improving the equipment I use
Connecting with my family, friends, and colleagues on a deeper and more meaningful level
Connected
Connect with my craft, my interests, and my Dad by creating learning content around real estate and not only why you should get involved in it, but how you can get started.
Complete
Complete posts I started on in 2023 that I wasn’t ready to create. Posts that belonged in the year of integration, not the year of consistency. Posts about the process, about art, about creation.
Complete art:
“If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.”
I started writing this post in March of 2023, but somehow haven’t found a way to finish it until December 29th, 2023. The additions I have just made in December before posting will be in bold text. I think it is because I feared I would not be consistent in this method. Another fear I had was that I have a bachelor’s degree in theater and a master’s of science in Instructional Design. I am not a medical doctor so giving health advice seemed like something I was not qualified for.
I went for a physical check-up with my PCP On April 19th of this year (2023) and after looking at my numbers he asked if I was doing anything differently. I said I was and explained a bit of what I have to say in this post. He said, “Well, whatever you are doing it is working. You could teach a class on this.” I agree with him, I don’t know if he knows that I work on learning, but, yeah, I could teach a class.
Picture of me walking outside of the Hospital after that very PCP visit in April, 2023
The main thing I want to stress is simply the weight gain I experienced. I acknowledge that weight gain is only a single measure, but if you are changing habits and are overweight, then weight loss is a good place to start. I am 6 feet 2 inches tall and the most I have ever weighed is about 250 lbs US.
I used the YMCA app to track my workouts and my weight. I managed to get down to about 202 right before our trip to Thailand. This screenshot was taken around June 8th when I was about 208 lbs. So this is what was happening with my weight a year previously to June 2023.
Then while we were in Thailand, (while I was on vacation) this happened.
This is what I looked like before all of this started
And this is what I looked like after.
Below this point is the original post I wrote in May of 2023, I will add more pictures and videos to support my point:
No More Sugar
I have made a promise to myself to explore the concept of consistency in 2023. Most importantly, I have successfully eliminated raw sugar from my diet. Cane sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, and yes even honey are things that I simply do not eat for now. I will eventually go back on the Maple syrup and the honey I think, but for now, for consistency around not eating honey, they are out. In addition to that sugar has been shown in research to be not much better for your body than vodka, beer, rum, malt Liquor, Milwakees Beast, Nattie, Stag, etc.
“Your liver metabolizes sugar the same way as alcohol, and converts dietary carbohydrates to fat,”
“The effects of added sugar intake — higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver disease — are all linked to an increased risk for heart attack and stroke,”
So how do I sweeten things, well, the short answer is Stevia or Monkfruit. Even certain sugar alcohols have no calories but tend to confuse the body and still disrupt the insulin cycle. So, for the most part, I don’t eat sweet things, but if I have a sweet craving I use the Steevia and Monkfruit packets I get at Costco.
The first video I watched that inspired this whole health journey is this one:
I understand that Dr. Berg is a chiropractor and not a dietician, but hell I’m an instructional designer, so I don’t have much room to judge. Still what he is saying is accurate, at least for the most part, and I am holding myself up as an example that it works.
While we are on the subject, I would simply like to bring up the point that the “practice” of medicine is still perceived to be an art as much as a science. I believe it was this podcast that explored the concept that the practice of medicine doesn’t look as much at the newest science but more along the lines of “This is how we have always done it.”Or, “This has worked so far so let’s just stick with it.”
Click on the image below to read the transcript and hear the audio.
If there is one thing other than sugar that I am consistently working toward it is insulin resistance, or finding ways to reduce the number of times per day my body starts creating insulin. This is a key to health because then when we actually do create some insulin our body reacts more effectively, and when we are not creating insulin our body goes into a rest state. The state of autophagy is when your body cleans itself out. It throws out all the junk, the bad mitochondria that lead to well, cancer.
Autophagy –
Consumption of the body’s own tissue as a metabolic process occurring in starvation and certain diseases.
Destruction of damaged or redundant cellular components occurring in vacuoles within the cell.
OxfordLanguages – Google
As the title suggests I have consistently undergone Intermittent fasting. I have vowed to skip breakfast and have not eaten it for just under 4 months (as of April 2023). I know that skipping dinner would be healthier because it would improve my sleep, but I wanted to start with something I knew I could be consistent with. I wake up and have a cup of coffee, If the day before was rough or a cheat day, I might add some ghee or cream in to make some bulletproof coffee but on a normal day, I only add stevia or cinnamon if anything. Two weeks ago I went for a two-day fast, on Thursday and Friday, and then ate a late breakfast on Saturday. It felt great and I was surprised I could do it.
At one point throughout this entire year, I fasted from Thursday to Sunday. I did not eat anything but water and coffee for over 72 hours. It was intense but overall I really enjoyed it. My fasting this year has ebbed and flowed, but overall I have fasted at least once per week to allow my body a chance to clean out the junk and decrease the chances that I have live cancer cells in my body. As I mentioned previously I have watched a lot of Dr. Berg’s videos, and here is his take on fasting. I like how these videos feel like a course in a classroom and he provides simple actionable advice.
The concept of fasting really did pick up for me later in the year. I can also use this opportunity to share another health goal I set for the year. This one is more about longevity and also focuses on no sugar, no alcohol, and fasting. I often listen to the Ten Percent Happier podcast on meditation.I first listened to the How to Get Fit Sanely series, and I listened to the episode with Dr. Mark Hayman before the others, and after listening to the others I still like this one the most.
I like his concept of having a long health span not just a long lifespan. Live a long healthy life. He also uses research from the blue zones, and he gets a bit carried away with supplements, but I really like his concepts of hot saunas, cold water baths, and eating the fruit of wild stressed plants. I got his audiobook from the library and put it on my phone for my trip to Thailand. Well, both of these books actually.
His message is not really groundbreaking… basically, maximize the nutritional content in your food. Minimize carbohydrates and sugar. Eliminate alcohol. Add small stressors to your lifestyle like working out, hot saunas, and cold baths. This habit activates your recovery systems, but once the repair is completed these systems keep on working. The idea is that this will increase your “healthspan“, not just your lifespan.
I have listened to Young Forever the most and found it very compelling information. Some of the information on nutrition and supplements is overwhelming, but it’s easy for example to remember to eat loads of pomegranate and kiwi fruit. Overall, it is just the principle of what makes you feel healthy, so find ways to stick to that.
I have the audiobook on my phone now so tracks from that book will randomly pop up when I mow the lawn. On one such occasion, there was a statement that Mark Hyman made about how new science is always heavily criticized by the scientific community. He basically claimed that old ideas in the world of science usually die out when those who believe them die. So, paradigm shifts in the scientific world are incredibly slow. What is considered “true science” or “legitamine science” is a relative term and changed throughout the ages.
Now a skeptic would think, “Well, of course, Dr. Hyman would say that how convenient, because he is a quack and he is full of $#!+.”
…And yet another person could hear that and think, well all of these ideas are new and have not all been thoroughly tested beyond a doubt with conclusive controlled studies. That is what you get with new or cutting-edge science. I could give it a shot and see how I feel. That is more what I did and I have to say that it worked for me. People are all different and what worked for me might not work for everyone else. Finding what works for you is what the health journey is all about.
As I mentioned I got into Mark Haymen from the Ten Percent Happier podcast on meditation. They had a Get Fit Sanely series, and I enjoyed all of them. I recommend you check it out!
Of the series these were my 2nd and 3rd favorites:
Your brain on Food was especially compelling and I share some of the food I crafted later in this post.
I also gave the intuitive eating episode a go. It was very compelling because it was obviously the favorite plan shared by the host, Dan Harris, but it didn’t work for me as well. Intuitive Eating was something I attempted later in the year, and it really led to me overeating and basically eating whatever I wanted between most of November and December. You can look at the chart for the whole year to see the overall result.
So, you can see above that my year was a net loss of 14 lbs. The low point in the middle was July when we visited Thailand and was my main goal to have a trimmed physique. The flat part after that was a result of my 50-Pushups a Day Challenge. Then after that, I listened to the intuitive eating podcast and added cheat days. Then October and November became a cheat month.
Consistently Nice to Myself
It has not always been easy cutting out raw sugar and then not eating for more than half the day. When I first started on this path I was happy to have the guidance of Dr. Eric Berg DC. His videos on the “Healthy Keto” approach made a lot of things fall together for me. Healthy fat is important in this transformation. It is the key to letting go of sugar. This is because our bodies are geared to store energy as Ketones and then burn that energy as fat fuel. Fat is a very efficient fuel for us. Sugar was not part of the equation until recently.
Here is another Dr. Berg plug on how to get started on “Healthy Keto.”
I have added cheat days after implementing “The Four Hour Body” method by Tim Ferris. This has really helped with the psychology of keeping on track with this method. On Saturdays I can eat whatever I want, I still fast in the morning, but I break my fast with foods high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats. There are also extra exercises I can do on this cheat day but I am normally working in the yard anyway so I don’t do them! This concept of how to have a cheat day really worked for me so I recommend checking it out. I mostly just added the workout to my schedule 3 times a week from this method. I have also added carbs that are not “white”, any carb that is or can be white. So, bread, potato, pasta, and rice are out, but yellow corn, sweet potato, or purple potatoes can be eaten in moderation.
Overall the cheat days work well for me as a psychological break, but they often turn into cheat weekends, and then coupled with intuitive eating they become cheat months or cheat seasons. So, they work but they should be used in moderation. If you just eat whatever you want one day a week then you really are not on a real ketogenic diet, because a bad cheat day can kick you out of ketosis for up to 4 or 5 days after.
I would really like to emphasize the workout sessions from “The Four Hour Body” as those helped immensely to use the “Minimum Effective Dose” MED of exercise to stay healthy and save time.
Consistently Well
So, far this health journey has been a journey of learning. It really is about finding what works for me to stay fit, and feel better about myself. I would say that cutting out sugar and snacking are the two biggest accomplishments of the year, but eating loads of vegetables, working out more, and cutting alcohol almost out of the picture have all helped tremendously.
I have also gotten into cooking healthy food at home and post about that a lot on my Instagram account.
Above Tuna and salmon salad have high protein count and salmon contains leptin, which signals to your system it is OK to burn off your fat as fuel.
Parsley rivals kale in nutrients and has more vitamins K, A, and C, and it is very easy to grow at home.
Amid all this fasting and eating a Ketogenic meal plan, I also got into fermenting foods because why not!?
Cole slaw mix on left, and peeled garlic on the right, both in a sea salt and purified water brine
If you adhere at all to the concepts of probiotics or even pre-biotics then fermented food is a way to cultivate good bacteria that help your gut work properly. I am not sure exactly where I stand on the science of all this but when I eat fermented food I do feel better.
I have been talking a lot about alcohol but have not directly written about it in this post. I had a dry January and that stretched out to 5 months of no alcohol. On Father’s day, June 16th, 2023 I drank a LOT of good bourbon and learned that drinking while you are on a Ketogenic diet has disastrous results. You basically get two or three more times drunker than you normally would. I also gave a few of the new NA beers a shot because they taste good but most of them still have high calories and sugar.Before you roll your eyes, there have been strong developments in vacuum stills that manage to preserve the flavor of the beer while removing the alcohol.
This Samuel Adams was especially delicious but it was actually more of a NA malt beverage, and the calories were just under 100 so not terrible. Still, hands down the NA beer I liked the most and felt the best about drinking was by Athletic Brewing Company.
Let’s just call it what it is. Alcohol is a toxin. It is a poison that destroys every part of your body. It diminishesthe body’s ability to produce muscle mass so it is not good for athletic recovery. Alcohol has been shown in multiple studies to have carcinogenic properties. More recently I have read that alcohol simply hinders the mitochondria in your cells which both provide energy to the cells and take out the trash. So, alcohol might make us feel good for some time but at the end of the day, it is just as bad or worse for you as sucrose or fructose.
So, this ended up becoming a long meandering post, but then again, it took me nearly a year to write it. I am happy you made it this far and I hope I brought up a concept or a guru that spoke to you. I would love to hear from you, and more about your personal health journey, and what has worked for you. Please send me aline or reply to this post.
Improvement Dave 