Double AA club Podcast
Double AA club Podcast
EP: 88 Transforming My Life: From Battling GERD and Mental Health Struggles to Embracing a Balanced Mind, Body, and Spirit Journey
Struggling with GERD nearly turned my life upside down, but it also inspired a profound transformation in my approach to diet and well-being. On this episode of the Double A Club, I share my journey from being a "fleet eater" to embracing a diet rich in colorful vegetables and natural foods. We break down the misconceptions about GERD, explaining how it damages the stomach lining and leads to ulcers. You’ll hear personal insights into how recognizing food patterns and stress levels can prevent chronic conditions, and discover practical steps to manage and improve gut health, including reducing alcohol consumption and quitting vaping.
The battle with mental health is an equally important part of my story. After grappling with depression and anxiety, I sought therapy and delved into self-reflection, guided by the wisdom of my grandfather's Buddhist teachings. This spiritual exploration, coupled with the powerful motivation from Tony Robbins' seminars, reshaped my mindset and renewed my energy. By sharing these experiences, we aim to provide hope and actionable advice for anyone facing similar challenges, highlighting the importance of reconnecting with spirituality and seeking professional help.
Balancing physical, mental, and spiritual health became my ultimate goal, inspired by a 12-month commitment to studying Shaolin philosophy under Master Shahang Yi from the Shaolin Temple in Europe. This chapter of my journey taught me the significance of physical exercises like Kung Fu and Tai Chi, mental self-reflection, and emotional regulation in achieving harmony. Emphasizing structure and self-acceptance, we discuss practical habits like setting aside quiet time for reflection and understanding life's dualities. Tune in for insights into achieving a balanced, peaceful life through the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit.
You are listening to the Double A Club and this is your host, ny Boom, and my co-host, big Daz. We'll be talking about trending topics in healthcare and basically, just as a disclaimer just to let the listeners know that this is just basically on our opinions and speculations and I hope you guys enjoy the show. Let's start off and kick off with our first topic.
Speaker 2:I think what stopped me was just me being diagnosed with GERD. I think that's when it really clicked. So explain GERD. That's when it really clicks, so explain GERD. Gerd, to make it simple, it's an extreme version of acid reflux, okay, so basically, anything that you take in, you're going to kind of throw it up or something like that. No, not at all, we don't throw it up. Gerd is basically, it's an erosion of stomach lining, let's just say it also creates ulcers in the gut, and the reason why it does that is because we are creating way too much acid in our gut and it's coming up the stomach into the esophagus track, and so because of it I didn't realize this until maybe three years ago, where I was diagnosed with. This is something I think people should really take into account is that the more we do by consuming all of these processed foods and just enjoying ourselves with alcohol and all of these things that are just, you know, it's great, right, you're eating anything you want, you're indulging yourself in alcohol and all of these things that are bringing joy to that moment of life Eventually it catches up to you, and that's exactly what happened to me. It just caught up to me and it manifested into that disease that I have now, which is GERD.
Speaker 2:I cannot eat any more garlic. I cannot eat any more onion Although maybe some people may say that you should. I personally the way my stomach feels because this is just me speaking individually the minute I include anything that's cooked like garlic or onion in my stomach, I can't have chocolate. I can't drink alcohol anymore. I do have a way of the way I eat. I can't consume any more high protein, so I can only have, maybe if I'm having like chicken. I don't consume any more of meat, but I do consume any other proteins, like turkey or pork I have about maybe three ounces Three to four ounces. Or pork I have about maybe three ounces Four, most Three to four ounces. Yeah, that too. And fish is probably a little bit easier on the gut if it isn't so fat like red-faced salmon, right, mm-hmm. So I can consume that.
Speaker 2:But what I noticed is that I started to consume more vegetables, and a lot of colorful vegetables, rather and these vegetables started to heal my gut. To be honest with you, I feel that not only do I feel healthier and I look healthier, but it started to reduce the amount of pain that I was having in my stomach, dude, I was having so much pain. There was a point where I couldn't fit stand for too long. I was just in my stomach, dude, I was having so much pain. There was a point where, like, I couldn't fit stand for too long, I was just in so much pain and obviously I was taking medication that they give you for anti-acid, medication that I was prescribed to take and I still take to this day. Whenever I need to take it, especially if I get a flare-up, I'll be cold, but, yeah, man, like to take, especially if it's if I get a flare up, I'll be calling it um, but yeah, man, like I, I I've been dealing with something that really make me make me open up my eyes about, like, what was I doing with myself?
Speaker 2:What was I continuously doing? What I was doing? Because I would, I would dude, I was gorged, I would like. My little girl says that I was uh, I was a fleet eater because I would dude, I was gorged. Like my little girl said, I was a fleet eater because I would wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and just go and start eating something from the pantry.
Speaker 2:It had gotten bad and imagined, right, this is me who speaking about being healthy, a personal trainer and all that, and here I am still eating certain foods that weren't just doing justice for myself. But again, I didn't know any better, right, because I didn't feel anything. I sometimes would get indigestion, as we call it, but I didn't see the pattern. And the more I started to notice about myself, about the pattern that was happening every so often, then it wasn't just me eating food, it was me just maybe having a bad day at work or having a bad day at all, right, and then all of a sudden, my stomach would flare up and I would be in so much pain and I would belch a lot. And my stomach would flare up and I would be in so much pain and I would belch a lot. So these are things definitely that I would watch out for.
Speaker 2:If somebody's just going through it, hey man, like, start paying attention to the patterns that has happened, how you're feeling, what's happening to your gut? Is it feeling okay? Are you constipated? Are you not constipated? I mean, it gets further down the line with that and just deeper and deeper. But at least if you're aware of it, you could stop it before it comes with diagnosis and before it becomes chronic, right, you could actually find a way to like starting to maybe eat a little bit better, consume less alcohol if you can.
Speaker 2:Obviously, if some people just don't care, they're going to consume alcohol.
Speaker 2:But I would say, between me, consuming a lot of alcohol, not to mention vaping, because I was also vaping, um and also consuming just lots and lots of food, yeah, I really deep myself in.
Speaker 2:And then, well, I've seen how it's been about three years, and every year it's gotten better and easier and easier, and it all kind of in a global standpoint, I would say, not only am I mentally healthy, but I'm also physically healthy. I'm also emotionally healthy and obviously spiritually healthy. But, yeah, man, it's got me somewhere where my mood is no longer up and down, right, and most likely yeah, most likely there were days when my testosterone was low because of the way how heavy I was and how much food I ate and what type of food I ate, and you name it, including the vaping part, as I call it. That got me into a really bad situation as well. That was just in the dark. Let's just say it was a really dark time for me as well and slowly but surely, I've been coming out of it. You know, since you mentioned that right and looking into how I got diabetes, I think a big factor to it is the was that we I believe in.
Speaker 1:You know we were trying to continue like this modified bodybuilding diet. You know saying we were trying to get this amount of proteins.
Speaker 2:Try to continue to save our muscle or build more muscle or get stronger or whatever, and we just ate too much that our body. You know we ate more than our body can handle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this goes back to the whole misconception that you know a lot of people average.
Speaker 2:The average person thinks that bodybuilders are healthy and they're not healthy Excessively. Yeah, I mean, they're talking about these guys who are like consuming X amount of calories and their bodies are going through this big transformation of just going from like 190 to like 200-300 pounds. I guess you could say, definitely that could be unhealthy in some people's eyes and in some people's eyes, obviously it's not going to be unhealthy, right, yeah, to each his own. I would say, right, I can't generalize this because everybody has their own views. But, yeah, I would say, just consuming the amount of food that some of us could consume in a city, yeah, it's just. It's just, it's amazing how we could consume so much food in gorge. Really, that's what we do sometimes, right, and then, yeah, me included, I gorge ourselves to a point of satisfaction and sedation and we're like, okay, I'm good.
Speaker 2:I remember doing this. I remember years ago, when we were going home, I prepared myself some food, eating that meal, making myself a whole tray of brownies like a whole, whole tray of brownies, right, like a whole big tray of that brownie package and eating half of that with a pint of ice cream, and going into a sugar coma from eating all that much, falling asleep, waking up and doing it all over again and it's like holy cow, what am I doing to myself, man? Yeah, what am I doing to myself? Yeah, yeah. So so let's talk about the mental health of kids in mental health category. Right, this way, and that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're right there where you just know, right there Might as well go into it.
Speaker 2:So tell us your story. Dealing with mental health. Yeah well, everybody has a way of looking at mental health and what they are either presently going through, or how long they presently going through, or how long they've been going through it. I would say for about.
Speaker 2:For me it probably started when I was about four years old, as far as I can remember, and I didn't know Ben, obviously until maybe around 28,. But I realized there was a problem with him, right, I didn't pay too much mind then either. I was too busy with the external, as I call it. We're too busy with the external, as I call it. External meaning the life that's outside of, not looking inside us, right, that's everything that's hand-me-down, like friends and parties and being in cars and being a booty and being a booty. So for me I would say, you know, some people go through the whole, like you know, going through a trauma when they're young, and then it sort of starts to manifest later on. So at 28, I kind of realized that there was something wrong with me and that I wanted to pursue some sort of balance between me and the external life. And I didn't necessarily grasp it very well then either, because I was still too busy with the external and it was kind of just I was gravitating towards more of the external part of my life, sort of like, hey, as long as I'm drinking as I was speaking before as long as I'm having fun with my friends, as long as I am busy with my mind, I wouldn't have to deal with the whole idea of sitting down and listening to myself. So that went on for quite a while until, as I said before, until I was diagnosed with GERD and I kind of downplayed it a little bit. I think I'm doing.
Speaker 2:I have noticed a little bit in my maybe mid-thirties as well, where I was actually searching for more of like spirituality, where I was going with it, what I would say religious, because I grew up as a Catholic and I would say not getting off the topic, but somewhere along the lines of 35 is when I started to realize, okay, what am I going to do as far out of how I feel, am I really depressed? Am I not depressed or am I just, you know, kind of making this up in my own head because I'm just not getting what I want? And, like I said, I go back to when I was diagnosed with GERD is when I started to realize no, that's really something wrong with me. Like you know, I'm actually depressed. I don't feel good, man. And that's when I got blood tests again just to see if my test was low, because sometimes that's what happens when the test is low. But no, everything was fine. So blood tests came back and I finally just realized that I was like shit.
Speaker 1:I am depressed at this moment is when it hits you that you're like, okay now.
Speaker 2:I know for sure, I'm depressed and I'm also and I'm also and I'm also anxiety and I was like something in my mind. Is there something?
Speaker 1:specifically that happened at this time or around that time, that was like that made you like, think about it.
Speaker 2:Like I, down high out of my mind and, with all the blinds closed, is really dark in that room and I was in. I was in pain, not not in physical pain, I was in and more like things are heartbroken. Now. I felt desperate to feel, to feel good, right, and I felt not just alone. But I was like man, I have a daughter. You know, at that point I was, you know I was married, so I was dealing with that depression while still going through, you know, the family sort of thing. And you know I had to make a choice Either I continued to just lay there and continue to wallow in my own depression, I would get up and do something about it, right. And so I would say, just, I made that decision right there, and then that I was going to not let it beat me, because if I would have let it beat me, I probably wouldn't be here today, right. So I would probably say that that was the sort of turning point of my life where I made a decision. First of all, I actually looked inside, I spoke to myself. I finally realized, well, okay, what am I going to do about this? And now I know and I'm realizing that this is happening and, yeah, I just got up and I started to make certain moves and I started doing certain things in my everyday life to start to overcome it. So what do you do? Somebody steps, so what do you do? What were some of the steps?
Speaker 2:Yes, so first I started to look for resources on how I could well speak to someone. So I started looking for a psychotherapist, which was something that I already had done in the past, but I had stopped doing it because, again, I was, I was enjoying my external life, as they call it, and because of this thing, obviously, you know, you kind of get swayed by the whole idea of just, and then I did find that once that I got myself a therapist. The second that I did do is I started to look internally. As I said, I started to. Instead of asking questions internally, I started to ask questions internally. I started asking myself questions why are these things happening? Why do I feel the way I feel? Why is my mood going up and down and stuff like that? And then started to just do research, research people online and just really be eager to like find out how can you help yourself. That was kind of like my second step, as you call it, and then, throughout the time that I was looking through all of this information and trying to get knowledge about my diagnosis room In the meantime, obviously, I was talking to the therapist, which also helps a lot I put things in perspective. I also found another way and this is not just anybody could do this right. I'm just saying, hey, this is what I found that's set to help me.
Speaker 2:And one thing that I did do and I found was I ended up making a choice about my spirituality and where I wanted to go, whether I wanted to come and stay a Catholic or did I want to search for something else. That's different, and in my case, I was introduced to Buddhism by my father's father, my grandfather, when I was probably around nine years old, and that's something I always intrigued. He took me to a temple one time. On the same day he went to New York and I just found it amazing, just, I don't know. Something connected with me then and resonated with me, and then, obviously, years later, at this point, I was like you know what? Let me look into this. This is something that still resonates with me, you know, and doing my research and listening to podcasts and reading books, self-help books and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:But that was great, don't get me wrong. It was motivating, but it wasn't getting me where I wanted to be, because reading and motivating yourself is just one step of of staying in the path that I am on. So I started to just look for more stuff and then, um, uncle tony robbins man, uncle Tony Robbins, as some people call him. I attended two of his seminars and it was probably one of the best things I ever ever did, really. Yeah, it wasn't just inspirational, it was probably part of a changing experience, because he's not just one of many people out there that are offering this great gift, which is not just motivation, but this energy that they give to people and Kodini, that has changed the way I look at life and, as I'm saying about you know, he was probably one of many inspiration as I went to the seminar I attended it was actually free with on YouTube and during that time I listened to all the stuff for three days.
Speaker 2:You know how you always get YouTube feed, especially if you watch certain things, because the algorithm throws more stuff. I don't know if you ever noticed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you. Yeah, well, it does right. So so it actually. It ended up once. Some feed ended up showing up called I forget I think it was called the Sheldon temple, europe, with master Shahang Yi, and I was like I kept seeing it over and over, but I never wanted to click on it. So I finally clicked on it and when I did, this is what I really just got immersed into it, and it not just helped me, but it literally turned my life around, which was I started listening to this man, just his words alone, and then I jumped into the website and I committed to a 12-month journey of studying Shaolin Temple, not just philosophical stuff when it comes to Buddhism, but also Kung Fu, tai Chi. So he's offering all of these things, and I'm sure it's a shameless talk for him out here. Thank you, master Sato-Inu. Yeah, man, like he has put a lot of things that in perspective that I never thought anyone would, and that path has led me to where I am today, where these steps were really taken only even as a step in my health.
Speaker 2:So first you have to look at yourself and say, well, why are we doing this? And then make it for you, always putting everything in perspective and making that sort of like a structural thing out of your life when am I, where do I want to go, how am I going to go there and what's going to happen after you get there? So the way I put it is that there are these steps that we need to do in order for us to get somewhere right and there are ideas that we can use to get us where we want to get right. In this case, like I spoke to you before about the whole physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual part of our energy, we have to balance them all out. And so I started to realize that if I could incorporate the physical part, which is the exercise, the walking right, the interaction with people, and then the mental side, which is just you immersing yourself inside your mind, right, and talking to yourself, and realizing that we all have different characters in our head that talk to us constantly, right, we're not crazy, we're just. We're just individuals who are dealing with different entities in our heads, and then if we could deal with that and find a way to, I would say, use those entities in your mind to work for you in the right time at the right places. That's one way to balance that part of you.
Speaker 2:Then the emotional part kind of works itself right, because, well, your mind, if you could, if you could manipulate the mind, the emotion part comes out right after and then the actions become worthwhile because, well, your actions are only a derivative of the mind and emotional state, or I would say the state of mind. So if you could change the state of mind, right, then you could definitely tackle that emotional part of you that's taking you elsewhere, that doesn't hijack you, because that's what happens Emotional feelings hijack people and they stay there. They do stay there, and if it hijacks you, man, you're done. You can't get yourself out of them. The only way you could do this is if your mental state could change, or you could manipulate the mental state. You could then guide your emotions in a certain way. Well then, spiritually, right, you could be in a better place. Most people can't get themselves to even sit down and talk to themselves, right. So, especially when it comes to the physical right, if you don't move, your mental and emotional state can't do anything, and neither can the spiritual, and maybe it's just spiritual, but you can't get them all balanced out. So I would say you can't get them all balanced out. So I would say the way I did it was that, little by little, I started to put a structure, which is what you're going to hear me say a lot of for a very long time.
Speaker 2:Alberto, if we don't have structure in our lives, everything will always fall apart. Everything will always fall apart. We have to build a foundation in our lives before we start doing all of these things that we want to do, especially when it comes to articles. I agree, I've become more accepting to myself. I've become more accepting of myself as a living being. I now have love and compassion for myself. Before I give that love and compassion out to the world, it's not going to be easy. The road is not easy. I'm still living it. I am still living the fact that I suffer every day. But then again, we all suffer all the time. We suffer while we're waiting to get something to eat because we're hungry right, hunger and suffering. But suffering is part of our lives. If we have more of understanding and we have more than understanding our lives then we could definitely get through these sort of trial times, whether you call them or not, or we could get through anything, as long as we put structure and we make it a structural part and become a reform habits about everyday life to get us to a point where we actually live a more peaceful life, if that's what you want to call it, or a happier life.
Speaker 2:And once you find that balance between all of these things right in a structural way, then obviously it's just manifest itself. It's just literally entirely comes out. It doesn't matter. I mean, I do follow a few rules that maybe not everybody will follow, but in essence is always about sitting down with yourself and having some time alone and quiet. That's all it takes. And then if you do it for maybe just 10 minutes, then the next day you'll do it for 15 minutes. If you do it for 15, then you do it for 20 minutes and before you know it you start to talk to yourself, not like a crazy person, obviously, but more of like, hey, you are the representative of you. If you don't know how you're speaking to the world, how are you going to get where you want to get as far as your goals are concerned, because our intent is where it gets us anywhere. But if our intent is clouded by all of these external things and including. You know obviously everything, including the external, then yeah, of course you're not going to get any money, we're not going to get anywhere. We're always going to constantly battle ourselves.
Speaker 2:I love to do this because it's easier to go through the path of less resistance. I would say Nobody wants to see the light, but I do follow. Like I said, I follow what's called the Four Noble Truths, and from that sentence to the Eightfold Path noble truths and from that sentence to the eightfold task is something that I learned that I'm sure your essence over the hell will be. But these are things that I follow because I'm trying to create a habit in my life that I could keep myself. I guess, keep yourself in check, as you say. Right, yeah, and that's one way I keep myself in check.
Speaker 2:It's following the noble truth that I've learned, the equal path that I've learned, and in order for you to obtain happiness there's not just a thing like that. By the way, this whole thing of like oh, I'm going to be enlightened and happy, like without happiness, comes also sadness. You can't always have one or the other. If you have sadness, there will be happiness. If you have happiness, there will be happiness. If you have happiness, there will be sadness. I know it sounds more like cliche, but that's exactly the truth.
Speaker 1:No, it's not cliche, there's always a pair in life.
Speaker 2:If you create one, if you notice patterns, there's always a pair of those there's day, there's night, there's light and there's darkness, of those there's day, there's night, there's light and there's darkness.
Speaker 2:And if you start to realize that suffering is not a bad thing either, that for you to actually be happy and content, you have to suffer first, or once you suffer, then you are content, and that's the balance of life as we know it. And so, because of it, I start to just look at them in that way where, like now, I just sit down and look at my life like, okay, how do I continue to not just make myself happy but to deliver this information to others, like my client, and I'm better, obviously, in a different outcome of me speaking of them. It's not the same as a man maybe coming up with an interview, but I use it so that I could help, not just motivate my clients, so that they could see life in a better, in a better perspective, right, and a more simpler perspective, rather than me talking about what the Buddha says, mm-hmm. Well, you know, going back to that happiness and sadness, I'll even push you even further.
Speaker 1:I'll add this to your copy of you wouldn't know what happiness is if you didn't go through sacrifice.
Speaker 2:Exactly, right, you know what sadness? Exactly, if we only went through darkness, we would never know what light is, and if we only went through light, we would never know what darkness is. We have to go through both. We have to go through both. We always have to go through both and that is something that I live by.
Speaker 2:Um, that that it got me out of of the hole that I was. I felt like I was in right, because that's exactly what it felt, like it I had to. I believe that's how it feels for everyone who suffers from depression. They always, always think it's a hole, like whatever the depression is, they always think that it's a hole that you just can't climb out of. Exactly, and that's how it felt for me for many years. I felt like a jacob. I kept going up that ladder and I could never get to the top and I didn't realize exactly why it kept happening, why I kept asking myself that Until finally I realized.
Speaker 2:Well, I first have to realize what is the truth of suffering. I have to realize what is the truth of suffering. Then I had to realize what is causing me suffering, right, like, who is causing me suffering. Now, most of us would. It's easier to externally point our fingers and say someone is made it or someone is making me go through the cause of suffering. Right, because it is easier, because the first thing we don't want to do sometimes is look inside. So we don't necessarily do that. And let's say the second would be the truth that we cause to suffering would be that the other way that we could put that it would be the greed part of suffering, right, the hatred, the greed or the ignorance of suffering, right, like all of those things will cause the suffering. What is the root cause of it? And then, obviously, like you said, the end of suffering. In order for us to get to enlightenment or happiness, we have to go through the suffering part and then the end of suffering, which is definitely a great path, right, great journey that we went through. But how do we get there? Because a lot of people, as I know, no matter how rich they are this is something that I must say that I see, even with certain people that I've worked with, right, even with certain people that I've worked with, right they can have the money and the glory that they don't have to worry about. And even though they have the amount of money they have, they're still not happy. Yeah, they're still suffering, right? So that's a pattern I didn't notice. I was like, wait, so it doesn't matter whether you're poor or rich, we're still suffering. Okay, so the understanding is suffering. How do we become sort of that happy place that we want to sort of get to?
Speaker 2:Well, then we have to understand the right understanding of life itself. Right, we have to, we have to find a way to understand life in general, the patterns that happen in life. Are we all the same? Are we not all the same? Why are these things happening? From what? Why are they happening, you know? And then we have to follow the whole idea.
Speaker 2:Okay, now that we understand the whole understanding of life, then we have to have the right thought about it. We can't keep constantly thinking bad thoughts or ill thoughts to someone. And then, as we follow that, we follow the way we speak to people as well. It's all about how we speak to people as well, you know. Obviously, if we think of something and we think it's true, then we can speak to someone a lot better, or we'll talk a lot better with others or about others. And if we do talk the right speech or the right way of speaking, then we will behave in a better way. Right, we're going to start to behave in a better way, but that leaves also living a good livelihood.
Speaker 2:So if you're going to live a better life, what does that better life mean? Does it mean that a better life means having more money? Well, not necessarily. For me, it would be just obviously not living a life of plunder and living off people and hurting others to make a living right. That's one way I would see it.
Speaker 2:Now we see, then we go through. How did you get all of these and how did you get to all of the places? If you don't have the right effort, you have to have a good state of mind in order for you to get the right effort. Then, with that said, concentration, do you lack concentration? Why do you lack concentration? Because that all goes back to all of what I'm saying. It's like the right understanding, the thought, the skills, the behavior, the livelihood, the effort. So if you cannot have any of those, then concentration is off the chart. You can't have that list, or at least that name and that list and the last one that I actually never thought it would work for me right and that would be the right meditation thank you for listening to the double A club.
Speaker 1:Me Right, and that would be the right meditation. Thank you for listening to the Double A Club. Listen to us next episode to continue this topic. If you want to reach us on the email, it is doubleaclubpodcast at gmailcom. Catch you on the next one.
