When you eat chicken (and eggs) do you ever stop to think:

Where did they come from?

This is a question I often ask myself about my food…

Where does it come from?

Does your chicken come from your backyard, a nearby farm?

Or some factory in some unknown place?

[ Click here to see videos and more photos ]

You’ll learn more about chickens and why and how I got chickens soon enough. But first here’s what’s in my latest update:

[+] How did we get chickens?!
[+] 101 things you can do with bamboo.
[+] Why should you eat pumpkin?

[+] Why are we selling beef jerky?
[+] Why should you compost?
[+] How’s your posture?

[+] How do you do a digital detox?
[+] How do you biohack your sleep?
[+] What’s my mind-altering drug of choice?

[+] Are you fasting to boost your immunity?
[+] Where did the biohackers go?
[+] How to detox and become a “Master Faster”.

We have chickens!

How did we get chickens? I had been telling Amphika for a while that it would be really cool to have chickens – and maybe even ducks.

Coincidentally Amphika‘s dad raises chickens… which is great… except that he raises them for cockfighting! Not something I agree with.

Nonetheless, fast forward to 2 weeks ago… Amphika told me that her dad was coming over to give us chickens and to build a chicken coop.

It was a Thursday morning. I was wrapped up on a Zoom call with fellow biohackers in Los Angeles where I was one of three showcase presenters. I was offering a presentation and live breathwork session. Luckily I was done with my presentation when Amphika’s dad arrived.

It took about only 2 hours to build and install a chicken coop underneath our deck – and add the two white chickens. Amphika’s dad said he wanted us to have the white chickens… so I asked if that’s because I’m white myself?!

There was a problem with getting the chickens.

The problems with getting the chickens had nothing to do with the chickens themselves. Rather, the initial problem was with our dog, Khai Wan.

As soon as we let Khai Waan off of her leash, she quickly discovered the new chicken coop and the chickens inside. Almost immediately and instinctively she went into attack mode – likely seeing them as food!

She was trying to attack the chickens and she was trying to destroy the chicken coop to get inside. Thankfully Amphika was able to safely pull here away.

What’s the solution to a killer dog?

The simple solution was to keep Khai Waan on her leash. We also put on her training collar that allowed us to shock her (just once) when she went crazy and tried to get the chickens. Thankfully there are other settings on the training collar: one is an audible beep and the other is a vibration. Now simply with the audible beep she knows that she’s not supposed to do whatever it is that she’s doing.

Building a dog house from old shipping pallets.

The other solution was to build a doghouse. We scavenged some old shipping pallets as well as some other materials and built a dog house with a locking door.

I would guess that it took about two weeks to build. However, I recently realized that the dog house is incomplete. She was going crazy pulling on her leash a couple days ago when Amphika came home, sending the chickens running across the yard.

I tried locking Khai Waan inside her dog house but she soon discovered she could slip through the space just below the roof. And I know the bamboo isn’t fastened very tight. So I still need to build in some reinforcements!

We now have extremely local eggs!

When Mrs. White laid her first egg this week I was like a kid at Christmas or on his birthday… Stoked!

I fried up one of the eggs in ghee and ate it over white rice. It was delicious! I noticed that the egg shell was harder and stronger than shells of eggs that I buy from the store.

Thank you chickens.

Overall I’m grateful to have the chickens because they brought to the surface a few important issues… like the need to train our dog… and also some issues that Amphika and I needed to address in our relationship.

101 things you can do with bamboo.

I had planned to plant and grow bamboo along the south wall behind our house for quite some time now.

I already knew that bamboo has many, many uses and I half-jokingly say that you can use it to do 101 different things.

I realized the utility of bamboo two years ago when I did a jungle survival training in the Philippines in a place where they trained United States soldiers during the America-Vietnam war. There I learned about some of the uses of bamboo. Our guide was an expert with a machete and would quickly shape bamboo into various tools and ornaments.

Can bamboo shield you from harmful EMFs?

My reasons for growing bamboo are a bit different. I want it to grow along the wall of our house to serve as a privacy screen and to block some of the electromagnetic fields coming from the cellular radio on the building about 200 meters from our house.

After my own trials and tribulations of researching how to transplant bamboo and grow it myself, I finally decided to simply buy bamboo from the plant market. It’s about 1 year old and already about 3 meters tall.

Are you a pumpkin eater?

This probably seems a bit odd to people back in the United States but… I’m super excited about growing and hopefully eventually harvesting and eating pumpkin!

Growing pumpkin and harvesting it isn’t so odd but most people in the United States as far as I’ve seen rarely actually consume and eat the pumpkins that they grow and harvest.

Here in Thailand pumpkins are commonly available to eat.

And for me – as a health and wellness practitioner – I’ve learned that pumpkin is one of the cleanest plants available.

As you may know just about every plant has its own mechanism of self-defense… so that if we eat too much of any one plant it can be considered poisonous or toxic.

Thus, in this regard, squash and pumpkins are considered very clean foods.

(Paul Saladino, the self-proclaimed “Carnivore MD” who advocates for meats and against plants, says that squash are one of the least toxic plant foods.)

Why are we selling beef jerky?

We’re selling grass fed a dry beef jerky!

We’re just getting started and we’ve only sold about 30 bags of jerky so far but thus far it’s been a fun business to get into.

The bigger idea behind the business is to help people discover healthy products, places, and practices in Thailand.

I wrote an article about the story of how we got into the business of selling beef jerky.

Why should you compost?

Yeah, I know… doing your own composting doesn’t sound all that exciting or sexy. However, as I’ve learned more and more about the importance of healing the soil on earth, composting seems like a good way to restore the nutrients and the health of the soil of our planet.

As with many things in nature, I found that composting is something I simply don’t understand very well.

That’s why I’ve been experimenting as I research different ways to compost. So now instead of throwing out our food scraps we bury them, add them to piles of leaves, and feed them to our chickens.

What do you do with your waste?

How’s your posture?

I’m finally getting serious about doing exercises to improve my posture because I have a slightly exaggerated rounded upper back (called kyphosis) and lower back. Also my head sticks too far out (like a chicken!).

I’ve been somewhat aware of my posture issues over the years; however it wasn’t until recently when a guest staying at our house pointed out how my head sticks out.

The support required to hold my chicken-head out can cause strain on my neck and upper back, and can also put me into sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) state thereby increasing my cortisol and adrenaline… and also may inhibit efficient breathing. Not good!

When I was searching for solutions to posture problems on the Internet I found a lot of resources (like videos) that mostly gave the same basic simple exercises. Since then I found courses online with a nice variety of exercises. And the person staying at my house who has worked in physical therapy has given me a lot more options that will both strengthen my core and improve my posture.

How do you do a digital detox?

Let me be clear: I haven’t always been such a big supporter of detox – for the body or otherwise. In fact, I’ve been very much into tech since I started programming as a kid. I couldn’t get enough of it and it couldn’t move fast enough for me.

In recent years, my thoughts have changed drastically. Now I find myself looking for strategies and tactics to free myself from technology.

I’ve been wondering what will happen if and when the power goes out and the internet goes down. I’m not worried; in fact, I would be excited to live without technology (for a little while at least).

Thus the question:

How do I digital detox?

Most recently I purchased some notebooks so that I don’t have to rely on my Google Calendar and Trello for planning. I also read about the Bullet journal – a way to use a notebook to plan and account for just about anything and everything.

I’m playing around with voice dictation instead of writing. In fact, most of this article came from my voice. It’s the first (of hopefully many!) “writings” that came from my voice instead of pen and paper.

I’ve been monitoring and reducing my screen time. This now comes standard on Apple devices.

I’ve been getting out in nature more…by simply living in a natural setting where I can do building, gardening and other permaculture activities.

I try to reduce my exposure to potentially harmful EMFs by turning off Wifi, other radios and devices. (Airplane mode is your friend!)

What are you doing to digital detox?

How do you biohack your sleep?

Sleep is something that I’ve struggled with most of my life… as far as I can remember that is.

I thought that when I got into Biohacking, health and wellness that my sleep problems would disappear.

Although my sleep improved drastically, I still struggle with waking up quite a bit during the night.  As my Oura ring reports, I don’t get as much deep sleep as I would like to.

Thus I’m trying more and more things to “biohack” my sleep.

You can sleep on an incline.

One thing that I’ve done in the past that I plan to do again is raise the head of my bed so that it’s on an incline. This helps with blood flow and, when I first tried it, I slept through the night without having to get up and go to the bathroom for the first time in a while.

I’ve yet to find a good way to raise my bed because for now my mattress is simply laying on the floor.

You can use sleep aid devices.

I was diagnosed with mild obstructive sleep apnea about two years ago and was recommended to use a device called a CPAP machine. However when I tried to get the machine I had to get tested again for sleep apnea and, because I scored better on the test (likely from raising my bed), my health insurance wouldn’t cover it.

So I’m trying some different devices…

One device is called a mandibular device and it pushes my jaw forward when I sleep at night so that my tongue doesn’t fall back and block my breathing. So far I’m not sure what I think of the device. It is uncomfortable to wear at night and slightly painful on my two front teeth.

The other device that I’m using is a simple nasal dilator that goes up my nose and pushes my nostrils open. It seems to help with breathing at night because my sinuses seem to be more clear.

What’s my mind-altering drug of choice?

That’s easy: Breathwork.

And I’m happy to report that the breathwork (and ice bath) sessions – both online and offline – continue!

I’ve been part of various breath work events online recently that have given me the opportunity to share Zen Strength Breathwork with people around the world.

And here at home in Chiang Mai, Thailand we have a kiddie pool that we can fill with water and ice… so that after we do the breathwork we can get in the ice – just like people who follow Wim Hof do!

If you’re interested in either an online breathwork session, or coming to my house for both breathwork and an ice bath, let me know. 🙂

Are you fasting to boost your immunity?

If you’ve read any of my articles in the past, you must know by now that you’re going to read and learn about another one of my favorite topics: fasting!

My most recent article looks at fasting from a perspective of pathogens in light of the novel coronavirus and a COVID.

I’ve learned and experienced that fasting is a good way to get the body into ketosis. Once the body is in ketosis, in theory it can better fight off certain pathogens, especially bacterial infections… because bacteria feeds on sugar.

I had assumed that fasting and ketosis would not be as effective for viral infections. However, after digging and researching I found quite the opposite…

It turns out that fasting and ketosis may actually help you fight off viral pathogens and infections.

Click here to find out how to boost your immunity with fasting and ketosis.

Where did the Biohackers go?!

We’ve been running the Biohackers Collective meetups here in Chiang Mai just about every Sunday since June last year.

At the pinnacle, we had nearly 20 people join our meetups. But now… we have zero 🙁

I plan to get things back going in June or July and, in the meantime, I’m open to recommendations for topics, presenters, places, etc. Let me know!

If you want a taste of our meetups, you can read about and watch a video when we spoke with local biohacker and entrepreneur, Christian Barmen.

Are you missing something?

Yes! You are missing something; that is if you haven’t read the last newsletter when I gave an update in my life including my early thoughts on the infamous Coronavirus. Be sure to check it out!

Do you want detox and become a “Master Faster”?

Although keto is the craze these days for the latest diet trend, after years of personal experience, research, and working with many clients, I truly believe that fasting is the BEST (anti-dietary) approach to achieve your health goals – to cleanse & detox your body while burning fat.

If you’re interested in learning all of the amazing benefits of fasting – and experiencing those benefits for yourself – I’m giving YOU a special promotional offer ($100 off) for my upcoming Master Faster challenge.

To qualify for this discount, simply send me a message and let me know that you’re interested. We’ll set up a call to make sure you’re a good fit for the challenge and, if so, you’ll soon be on your way to lifelong health!

[ Click here to see videos and more photos ]

What about you?

What are your thoughts and experiences with chickens, bamboo, pumpkin, beef jerky, compost, posture, digital detox, sleep, breathwork, biohackers and fasting?

Leave a comment and let me know.