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I’m devoting this post to one of my favorite quotes of all time. I first heard it in former President Obama’s eulogy of Senator John McCain, and it has stuck with me ever since. It was originally spoken by Theodore Roosevelt in his Citizenship In A Republic address, delivered on 23 April, 1910, and this segment of the speech is commonly known as the “Man in the Arena.” Enjoy:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without err and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

When I first started to hear about the “Keto” diet a year or so ago, my first thought was that it was just another fad diet that was gaining popularity, but would eventually fade into obscurity like so many other popular weight loss diets. I mean, who would think that a diet high in fat(which is supposedly bad for you, right?) and extremely low in carbohydrates such as fructose, bread, whole grains, rice, and oats could possibly be good for you. Well, the more I started looking into it, I began to see that perhaps I had been somewhat wrong about what is “healthy” and “not healthy”. Before I go on, however, let me just say that I do not believe carbohydrates are unhealthy, and there are millions upon millions of people who live healthy lifestyles with high, healthy carbohydrate intakes. What I want to argue is that when looked at from the point of view of what our bodies need, and what they do not need, the Ketogenic way of eating seems to make the most sense and includes numerous health benefits including weight loss and physical performance, mental clarity, very low inflammation, and likely disease and cancer prevention.

So what exactly is the Ketogenic way of eating? The most basic answer to this question is that the Ketogenic Diet is very high in fat, moderate in protein, and extremely low in carbohydrate intake. It is not just a low-carb diet, as it is often confused with. In a low carb diet, which is also a common weight loss method, an individual will lower their carbohydrate level in order to prevent excess carbs from being stored as energy, or fat as we know it. However, in a traditional low-carb diet, the carbohydrate level is still high enough where the body continues to use them as its main source of fuel. In a Ketogenic Diet, however, an individual lowers their carbohydrate intake to such a small amount that the body can no longer feed off carbohydrates for fuel and instead produces ketones for energy, which are created from fat. This is why the Ketogenic Diet is so often used as a weight loss strategy. When the body begins to use fat as its main source of fuel, it will also become extremely efficient at burning stored fat off of the body, as many people will attest to. One important thing to keep in mind on a Ketogenic Diet is that the fats that you consume should be coming from real, whole, natural ingredients such as nuts, olive oil, avocado oil, steak, bacon(yes, bacon is healthy), butter(yes, butter is healthy), eggs(eat the yolks!), and avocados, just to name some examples. Fats that should be avoided whenever possible include vegetable oil, canola oil, margarine, and any hydrogenated oils. The carbohydrates that are consumed on a Ketogenic Diet should mostly come from leafy greens, which you can eat as much as you like of, such as kale, broccoli, and spinach, as well as some berries and occasional fruit for a treat. When these general rules are followed to keep your Keto diet as clean as possible, the best results will follow, whether that be just for weight loss, or a lifetime of vibrant health.

Besides weight loss, which is probably the most common reason people are using this diet, another awesome benefit of the Ketogenic Diet is that it is extremely low in inflammation. Every time that an individual consumes carbohydrates, their insulin levels rise in order to store the carbs for energy. The worst carbohydrates of all, and even health experts who do not promote the Keto diet will tell you this, are added sugars and simple, processed carbs such as table sugar, bread, and deserts. When these foods are consumed on a regular basis, it causes blood sugar levels to be elevated consistently, leading to inflammation within the body. I’ll admit, I do not know a whole lot about what inflammation looks or feels like within the body, but many studies have come out linking inflammation to numerous modern diseases that humans suffer from, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. The Ketogenic Diet is similar to the Paleo diet in that it attempts to mimic what our ancestors would have eaten thousands and thousands of years ago. Like the Paleo diet, which excludes any and all processed foods, particularly added sugars and processed carbs, the Ketogenic Diet takes it a step further and limits even natural carbohydrates and sugars. The argument for this reasoning is that our ancestors, unless they lived between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of Capricorn, ate mostly fatty animal meat and leafy vegetables as their main source of food, with fruits being available to them a month or two out of the year when the trees ripened. With this logic, our DNA is not programmed to be eating a diet high in carbs and sugars 12 months out of the year, and instead prefers to live on a diet high in fat and protein. With this low-carb, high fat diet, insulin and blood sugar levels are consistently low, and the body is free to run on ketones for fuel, instead of carbohydrates.

Another benefit of the Ketogenic Diet, which I believe may be the best of all if research continues to verify it, is that it is very effective at preventing cancer. As I was researching, I learned that all cancer cells share one thing in common: they feed off carbohydrates and sugars in order to grow and multiply. In an article on Healthline, it explained how with a Ketogenic Diet, blood sugar levels are very low due to the low sugar and carbohydrate intake, which is basically thought to starve cancer cells. In another article on NCBI, it states that research shows that cancer cells cannot use ketones for energy, while healthy body tissue can. In the study, it concluded that the introduction of ketones into mice with tumors prolonged their survival and reduced the burden of the tumor on them. These studies look promising, and if cancer cells feed off of sugars and carbohydrates, then it seems likely that the Ketogenic Diet could be the best diet known to man at preventing cancer.

Having been on the Ketogenic Diet for about six weeks now, with a cheat meal about once a week where I’ll have some carbs, I can say with honesty that I have never felt better physically or mentally in my life. The mental clarity that people say they experience while eating the Ketogenic way is no joke, and I can attest to it. I eat about two meals a day, and the great thing about a Ketogenic Diet is that you never have to count calories. I can literally eat as much as I want, and I’ve only seemed to loose weight. This is due to the satiating hormones that fat and protein trigger. If I try to eat 12 pieces of bacon and 8 eggs, I would be full somewhere about halfway through, and I would be so full that I could not eat another bite or I’d feel sick. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, do not cause this satiating effect. I could probably eat an entire box of whole grain cereal and an hour later I’d be hungry again. Again, I do not believe that all carbohydrates are unhealthy, and their are many that are incredibly nutritious, However, I believe that to follow the proper human diet, the Ketogenic Diet is the way to eat.

Sources Used:

• “7 Great Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet”, KenDBerryMD, youtube.com, October 22, 2017.
• “Can a Ketogenic Diet Help Fight Cancer?”, by Rudy Mawer, Healthline, July 24, 2016.
• “How to do a Keto Diet: The Complete Guide”, Thomas Delauer, youtube.com, December 6, 2018.
• Ketone Supplementation decreases tumor cell viability and prolongs survival of mice with metastatic cancer”, by AM Poff, C. Ari, P Arnold, TN Seyfried and DP D’Agostino, Wiley-Blackwell Online Open, October 1, 2014.
• “Reduced Pain and Inflammation in Juvenile and Adult Rats Fed a Ketogenic Diet”, by David N. Ruskin, Masahito Kawamura Jr., and Susan A. Masino, plos.org, December 23, 2019.
• “Reducing Inflammation: Why the Ketogenic Diet and Exogenous Ketones Are Key”, by Dr. Brianna Stubbs and Chill Olonan, HVMN, February 28, 2019.
• “What is the Ketogenic Diet?(Basic Concepts Simply Discusses)”, KenDBerryMD, youtube.com, July 17, 2018

I’ve seen a few of my friends posts this year listing all of the books they have read in 2018 and I decided this year to make my own list. In a way, it’s sort of like the opposite of a New Year’s resolution, in that I’m looking back at something I wanted to do this year(read more books), and seeing how I did. The following is a list of the books I’ve read this year, listed more or less in the order I read them, and only books I read in their entirety.  I’ve excluded from this list books that I read for classes, as these were not read in my “free time”:).

1. Grant, by Ron Chernow.  This book is about the life and career of the Civil War general and U.S president, and is a fantastically written biography about the man, who before I had known relatively little about.  Also, probably the longest book I’ve ever read.
2. Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis.  I have had this book for a while, and finally got around to reading it this year.  For those who haven’t read it, I recommend!
3. The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis.  A devotional book written in the fifteenth century in Europe, and one of the worlds most widely read Christian books.  Very thoughtful and still relevant today despite it’s age of over five centuries.
4. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.  A fictional novel, but based on the brutal Belgian ivory trade in the Congo region.
5. Genghis Khan, by Jack Weatherford.  I went to the Reagan Presidential Library while they had the Genghis Khan exhibit going this summer, and picked up this book in the gift shop.  A good read for anyone interested in the largest empire in history and it’s most well known figure.
6. Gospel of Luke, by anonymous(the Beloved Physician).  The longest of the 4 gospels of the New Testament, and also arguably the best written.
7. Confession of St. Patrick, by St. Patrick.  This is one of only two surviving sources from Ireland’s patron saint, and was an enjoyable, and fairly short read.
8. Romans, by Paul.  The sixth book of the New Testament, and one of the undisputed letters of Paul. 
9. The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis.  This was an interesting book in the way that it takes the opposite point of view than most other Christian writings.
10. Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow.  This historical biography, written by the same author as Grant, is the second longest book I read this year, and was just as well written.  Ron Chernow finds a way to make these long, historical biographies very enjoyable and almost like a novel.  This is also the book that inspired the extremely popular broadway show Hamilton.
11. St. Patrick of Ireland, by Philip Freeman.  This book was written by one of my professors at Pepperdine University, and I bought it after taking his class.  There is relatively little known about St. Patrick other than his two handwritten letters, but this book does a great job of putting Patrick’s life in a context, and is overall a well-written biography.
12. What Unites Us, by Dan Rather.  I really enjoyed reading this book about Rather’s thoughts on patriotism, and the ideals that he believes have always bonded us together as a nation.  I agree with the many reviews of this book that note how it rises above dividing partisan issues, and can be read and enjoyed by people on the right or the left. 

I’m currently reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose, and will have to include it in next years list, as I’m not even close to finishing it before the new year. However, so far so good! Hopefully next year I can add a few more novels to my reading list, which I seemed to lack this year. A couple other books that I read recently prior to 2018 that I think are worth mentioning as good reads are Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius, and One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez.  

One year and one day ago today, on August 21, 2017, I was fortunate enough to witness one of nature’s most stunning events when the total solar eclipse passed through the United States.  When I first heard about this event, sometime around May or June, I hoped very much that somehow I would be able to make the trip to somewhere on the path of totality(the approximately 70 mile wide line where the moon blocks 100% of the sunlight to Earth), which stretched from Oregon to South Carolina.  Living in Southern California, the closest place for me to view the eclipse in all its glory turned out to be Idaho.  In Southern California, if I was not able to make the trip, the moon would still eclipse a portion of the Sun(which would obviously still be cool to see), but now having seen it in totality, I’m so happy that I was able to make it work.

A few weeks before the eclipse, my dad and I decided that it was for sure worth it to try and find a way to make it to the line of totality on August 21st.  Even though it was a strain on our schedules, and we would likely be extremely rushed traveling there and back, we knew it would very likely be a once in a lifetime experience to witness such a rare event as a total eclipse.  As it turns out, millions of people we thinking the same thing and all flights to anywhere even near the line of totality were either sold out or extremely expensive, so the only option was to drive, which we decided we would do.  Unfortunately, however, as the day got closer, my dad ended up not being able to fit it into his schedule and had to stay in California and watch the partial eclipse from here.  Fortunately for me, however, my mom and two of my siblings agreed to travel to Idaho Falls with me, and on Sunday, August 20th we left California and drove towards Idaho.  Since every hotel room in or near Idaho Falls had been booked for months, if not years in some cases, we drove to Salt Lake City on Sunday and on Monday drove the rest of the way to Idaho Falls, just in time to find some eclipse glasses and a parking spot.

After we finally parked and found a nice viewing area in town at about 10:40am, we looked up with our eclipse glasses on and could see that the moon had already started moving across the face of the Sun.  At this point, only about a quarter of the Sun was covered, and other than looking through the eclipse glasses at the Sun, it was difficult to tell that it was any darker outside.  As we waited until 11:32am, at which time the Sun would be completely covered, it slowly became evident that the light of day was getting dimmer.  As it began to get eerily darker, insects began coming out as they do in the evening, and the street lights turned on.  Even by about 11:30, with just a sliver of the Sun still visible, it was still to bright to look at with the naked eye, but it was about as dark outside as a normal evening about 20 minuets after sunset.

At 11:32am, the moment we had all waited for finally arrived, and the entire city seemed to gasp in awe of what they were witnessing(there we thousands of people outside around us).  The surface of the Sun was completely covered by the moon and it was as dark outside as any night at midnight.  Stars were visible above, and the air temperature had probably dropped by about 10 to 15 degrees since the start of the eclipse.  By far the most amazing part for me was seeing the corona that surrounds the Sun, which cannot be seen to the naked eye except during the brief period of a total eclipse.  My best description of it would be like a ring of flames surrounding a black hole(the moon).  If it wasn’t the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen, then I don’t know what is.  I know this sounds corny, but for the next minuet and a half I was covered in goosebumps trying to make each second last as long as possible.  When totality ended, and the bright edge of the sun broke through the darkness, the whole city cheered at the spectacle they had just witnessed.  Perhaps the cheers were also also about the Sun coming out again, and that it wasn’t gone forever.  As much as the Sun can get a bad rap for being obtrusively hot, bright, and uncomfortable a lot of days, ever since the eclipse I have a little more of an appreciative attitude towards the constant, reliable light and life it provides each day.

Over a year later now, whenever I talk to someone about that time I saw the Solar Eclipse, I tell them whatever you do, its worth it to try and see one at least once in your life.  I can tell you, you won’t regret it.

 

Recently I picked up the book Meditations written by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  History, especially history from the Classical Greek and Roman times, interests me so when I heard about this book by one the great Roman Emperors, I had to pick it up.  And it was less than two dollars!  I won’t go into detail trying to summarize the book but it is basically a collection of writings/meditations that Marcus Aurelius wrote down at some point during his time as emperor.  The writings are believed to have originally been private reflections written down for personal meditation but have since been put together into one of the most famous books in history.

Based on the ideas of stoicism, Mediations emphasizes the principles that lead to a good life; character traits such as virtue, simplicity, and always thinking about good things.  Learning to be content in whatever situation you’re in leads to happiness and no one except yourself can take that away from you.  There are many good lessons that I found while reading this book that I hope will stick with me.  Its not a very long book but it is full of good thoughts that can really make you think about what’s important and what’s not important.

Anyways, I’m happy I picked this book up and I’m sure I’ll be reading it again in the future some time.  Even though it was written almost 2000 years ago it is still full of very relevant ideas that can really be useful to anybody.

 

If you ask a lot of people that know me, especially my family, they’ll probably tell you that I like driving and I can drive a long distance without getting tired, which is true.  From the time I was a kid until the present day, road trips have been one of my favorite things to do for fun and leisure.  To me, there is something that feels really neat about just being on the highway, away from your normal life and places and just going where the road takes you.  So in 2014, after I graduated from high school, I decided that I would find four or five days that summer and drive my car somewhere in the western U.S.A and see how it goes, having never been on a trip by myself before.

I found an open week in mid-July so on Wednesday, July 9th, I packed up a small bag with some changes of clothes, a road atlas, some snacks, and some emergency water(incase my car broke down in the desert), and I left, not knowing exactly where I was going.  I ended up driving through Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Denver, and then I went home on a more northerly route with took me through Utah which was amazing.  My whole trip lasted four days and three nights and when I got home that Saturday night, although I was pretty worn out from driving that far, I was so happy that I did the trip.

Looking back on that trip three years later now, the memories are still so great and I can so clearly picture many of the amazing sights that I saw those four days.  That feeling of being able to drive wherever I wanted with no set schedule was really cool.  While trips with family and friends are fun too and I go on them all the time, I think everybody at some point should consider going on a solo trip, even if it’s not a road trip and you’d prefer to fly somewhere or take a train.  You can play music that you want to hear, stop wherever you want along the way without worrying if someone else would prefer to keep going, and you have a lot of time for your mind to just relax and enjoy the scenery around you.  There are so many things to see in the world and even just a small trip like this can really give you a glimpse of this.