Before we left Australia, our newly diagnosed diabetic 1yr old had a blood test that changed the way I view the world forever!
Firstly, the Dr's in Aus lost our results and we didn't hear back from them for a few months, and when we finally did, it sent our family on a 6 week roller coaster that we will never forget!
We were told that he had some concerning elevations in his GAG's and that we would need to do another round of tests to confirm things even more, what were GAG's was our first question and we were subsequently told that when an elevation of GAG's are present it tends to confirm a very rear genetic disorder in the 'MPS' family.
Obviously our next question was 'well whats MPS?' and we told under strict conditions to not google it and to wait for these next round of results to come back before we talked.
Sounds serious doesn't it..... Well it was;
Of course we went back and googled the shit out of it, we were, my family was, and it wasn't making great reading by any means,
If in fact, if it is MPS, the best case scenario was that Jack would experience kidney failure and need a transplant, worst case, lets just say it would be a miracle if he saw his 15th Bday, it was that serious.
So the 6 weeks we waited for the results was hell, an emotional roller coaster we never thought we would ride, to have this young innocent boy only a few months earlier get diagnosed with a life changing disease to now facing the prospect of not even seeing out his teenage years was incredibly hard to accept, especially when he visually from the outside looks totally fine!
I remember having this weird premonition one afternoon that hit me like a tonne of bricks, Jack was outside pushing his little cart around while I was in the kitchen, out the corner of my eye I saw him push past the windows and ranch slider doors along the concrete and I instantly had this deep, emotional, visceral feeling;
'when he's gone, this vision, this noise, this memory of our this little boy is what I will miss the most'
It was such a fast, deep and emotion feeling that it instantly woke me up and I just went and watched, I was present and just took in what I was seeing, and it was beautiful.
To be present in a world full of chaos & stress is a skill set we all should master (me included), when we dwell about our pasts, stress over our futures, we're robbed of all the joy that's right in front of us (like our kids), and we can never know when these joys might leave us or be no more!
I remember making a deal with myself and the universe that if Jacks results came back miraculously clear that I would do 2 things;
1) Look and approach Jacks Diabetes from a place of positivity, strength & inspiration
&
2) Put myself out there and be of more service and significance to people in the world (something I've said I've wanted to do, but always put off)
And the universe works in mysterious ways, 'it doesn't give you want, it gives you what you need' because at the end of this ordeal, Jacks results came back NEGATIVE, fricken clear, and his medical team has no reasoning and/or explanation as to why it was even high in the first place and in their eyes he was good to go;
Talk about going to hell and back......
But as I said the universe works in mysterious ways,
Now it's my turn to keep up my end of the agreement!
Firstly, the Dr's in Aus lost our results and we didn't hear back from them for a few months, and when we finally did, it sent our family on a 6 week roller coaster that we will never forget!
We were told that he had some concerning elevations in his GAG's and that we would need to do another round of tests to confirm things even more, what were GAG's was our first question and we were subsequently told that when an elevation of GAG's are present it tends to confirm a very rear genetic disorder in the 'MPS' family.
Obviously our next question was 'well whats MPS?' and we told under strict conditions to not google it and to wait for these next round of results to come back before we talked.
Sounds serious doesn't it..... Well it was;
Of course we went back and googled the shit out of it, we were, my family was, and it wasn't making great reading by any means,
If in fact, if it is MPS, the best case scenario was that Jack would experience kidney failure and need a transplant, worst case, lets just say it would be a miracle if he saw his 15th Bday, it was that serious.
So the 6 weeks we waited for the results was hell, an emotional roller coaster we never thought we would ride, to have this young innocent boy only a few months earlier get diagnosed with a life changing disease to now facing the prospect of not even seeing out his teenage years was incredibly hard to accept, especially when he visually from the outside looks totally fine!
I remember having this weird premonition one afternoon that hit me like a tonne of bricks, Jack was outside pushing his little cart around while I was in the kitchen, out the corner of my eye I saw him push past the windows and ranch slider doors along the concrete and I instantly had this deep, emotional, visceral feeling;
'when he's gone, this vision, this noise, this memory of our this little boy is what I will miss the most'
It was such a fast, deep and emotion feeling that it instantly woke me up and I just went and watched, I was present and just took in what I was seeing, and it was beautiful.
To be present in a world full of chaos & stress is a skill set we all should master (me included), when we dwell about our pasts, stress over our futures, we're robbed of all the joy that's right in front of us (like our kids), and we can never know when these joys might leave us or be no more!
I remember making a deal with myself and the universe that if Jacks results came back miraculously clear that I would do 2 things;
1) Look and approach Jacks Diabetes from a place of positivity, strength & inspiration
&
2) Put myself out there and be of more service and significance to people in the world (something I've said I've wanted to do, but always put off)
And the universe works in mysterious ways, 'it doesn't give you want, it gives you what you need' because at the end of this ordeal, Jacks results came back NEGATIVE, fricken clear, and his medical team has no reasoning and/or explanation as to why it was even high in the first place and in their eyes he was good to go;
Talk about going to hell and back......
But as I said the universe works in mysterious ways,
Now it's my turn to keep up my end of the agreement!
HEALTH
A few weeks back I listened to the book
'Ultra Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food' by Dr Chris van Tulleker
We're at an inflection point with health and most importantly what we put into our bodies, and if we don't start taking account and ownership of this most vital part of how we live, society as a whole's health is quite simply ruined.
One point that's hit home to me is our inability to quantify and judge what we expose our bodies too;
There's an increasing body of evidence that is highlighted brilliantly in this book that we will always under estimate just how much we eat in a day/week/meal and grossly over estimate how much exercise/movement we do each and every day.
These miscalculations over time can be detrimental to our overall health goals and likelihood of experiencing chronic disease!
So I decided to test this myself in my own life;
Using 'MyFitness Pal' I was able to work out that my daily caloric needs was around 3,000 cals/day or 21,000 cals/week (not factoring in exercise, movement or training etc), then I tracked my meals and subsequent calorie intake over the coming days and the results were surprising!
I'm a boring, basic eater, I can and mostly do eat the same thing every day (like most of us) and it never fazes me;
But what I do mix up is the number of feeds I have / day, some days/periods I intermittent fast and only have 3 feedings during a 24hr period (Brunch, Snack & Dinner), whereas other days/periods I will have 5 feedings during a 24hr period (Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner);
On my intermittent fasting days, my 1st meal made up on ave 53% of that days total cals, and my dinner made up for about 34%, the remaining 13% was snacking.
On my 5 feedings a day, Breakfast was 30% of daily cals, Lunch 15%, Dinner 44% & Snacks 11%.
But here was the crazy thing, when I Intermittent Fasted I was eating on ave 2,924 cals / day or 20,468 cals / week compared to on my 5 meals a day where I would consume 3,566 cals / day or 24,962 cals a week.
There's almost an increase of 20% more cals if I was to have a 'normal' feeding window compared to intermittent fasting, and close to 18% above my weekly cal target!
So for me to lean up a bit and start to get my health back on track, moving more and Intermittent Fasting seems to be a great place to start!
'Ultra Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food' by Dr Chris van Tulleker
We're at an inflection point with health and most importantly what we put into our bodies, and if we don't start taking account and ownership of this most vital part of how we live, society as a whole's health is quite simply ruined.
One point that's hit home to me is our inability to quantify and judge what we expose our bodies too;
There's an increasing body of evidence that is highlighted brilliantly in this book that we will always under estimate just how much we eat in a day/week/meal and grossly over estimate how much exercise/movement we do each and every day.
These miscalculations over time can be detrimental to our overall health goals and likelihood of experiencing chronic disease!
So I decided to test this myself in my own life;
Using 'MyFitness Pal' I was able to work out that my daily caloric needs was around 3,000 cals/day or 21,000 cals/week (not factoring in exercise, movement or training etc), then I tracked my meals and subsequent calorie intake over the coming days and the results were surprising!
I'm a boring, basic eater, I can and mostly do eat the same thing every day (like most of us) and it never fazes me;
But what I do mix up is the number of feeds I have / day, some days/periods I intermittent fast and only have 3 feedings during a 24hr period (Brunch, Snack & Dinner), whereas other days/periods I will have 5 feedings during a 24hr period (Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner);
On my intermittent fasting days, my 1st meal made up on ave 53% of that days total cals, and my dinner made up for about 34%, the remaining 13% was snacking.
On my 5 feedings a day, Breakfast was 30% of daily cals, Lunch 15%, Dinner 44% & Snacks 11%.
But here was the crazy thing, when I Intermittent Fasted I was eating on ave 2,924 cals / day or 20,468 cals / week compared to on my 5 meals a day where I would consume 3,566 cals / day or 24,962 cals a week.
There's almost an increase of 20% more cals if I was to have a 'normal' feeding window compared to intermittent fasting, and close to 18% above my weekly cal target!
So for me to lean up a bit and start to get my health back on track, moving more and Intermittent Fasting seems to be a great place to start!
FAMILY
There are 4 strong connections or values that are a ever present in our boys lives;
Nature, Animals, Movement & Family;
They've been massive influences on myself growing up and are still very much present today, and I have always wanted to create an environment for the kids where they got to experience the same (a big reason on why we moved to a farm)
So I'm building a running/walking track....
Yes you heard me right, a running track!
Just hear me out for a second;
It's all about creating memories for our kiddies, creating habits and setting foundations in their young lives that will stay with them forever, and this track does all of this!
As a family (dog included and Jack in his hiking pack on our backs) we all walk around this 200m loop of our house, lawn & chicken run as many mornings as we can during the week, it's a great time to connect before they all head off to school, it gets them out of the house (and our hair) and into nature, and it's genuinely fun to do (apart from the thousand questions we get each lap from our oldest).
And remember from last week that we now don't have TV going anymore, our oldest 2 boys time themselves running around it for 1 & 4 laps, they record their PB's on our whiteboard and they really seem to like it (all part of my plan). We even use it as a way to get their 'jiggles' out if the older 2 are playing WWF in our lounge (which happens way too much for our liking)
It's even got to the point where Jack goes out there on his own and rips out a lap, his teeny tiny 18mnth road runner legs going nuts is very cute and again it's something my wife and I will always remember;
It's about creating memories, remember!
Plus the biggest bonus of all is that I can now do interval trainings and run whenever I want and never leave my house
(which was also part of my plan);
How are you making memories??
Nature, Animals, Movement & Family;
They've been massive influences on myself growing up and are still very much present today, and I have always wanted to create an environment for the kids where they got to experience the same (a big reason on why we moved to a farm)
So I'm building a running/walking track....
Yes you heard me right, a running track!
Just hear me out for a second;
It's all about creating memories for our kiddies, creating habits and setting foundations in their young lives that will stay with them forever, and this track does all of this!
As a family (dog included and Jack in his hiking pack on our backs) we all walk around this 200m loop of our house, lawn & chicken run as many mornings as we can during the week, it's a great time to connect before they all head off to school, it gets them out of the house (and our hair) and into nature, and it's genuinely fun to do (apart from the thousand questions we get each lap from our oldest).
And remember from last week that we now don't have TV going anymore, our oldest 2 boys time themselves running around it for 1 & 4 laps, they record their PB's on our whiteboard and they really seem to like it (all part of my plan). We even use it as a way to get their 'jiggles' out if the older 2 are playing WWF in our lounge (which happens way too much for our liking)
It's even got to the point where Jack goes out there on his own and rips out a lap, his teeny tiny 18mnth road runner legs going nuts is very cute and again it's something my wife and I will always remember;
It's about creating memories, remember!
Plus the biggest bonus of all is that I can now do interval trainings and run whenever I want and never leave my house
(which was also part of my plan);
How are you making memories??
WEALTH
I've decided to go deep into mastering my finances, I'm currently listening to 2 amazing audio books that are really providing me with a massive amount of inspiration and motivation;
And they're good, I mean really good!
What they're made me realise, is that I've never sat down and done a full audit of our finances, our spending, our consumption habits and our investment breakdowns, so it's what I've been doing this week, and here's what I found;
Over the last month 24% of our household spending has gone to our mortgage, 10% has gone to utilities, so we could say that 34% of our monthly spending goes to fixed costs, which more that likely wont change.
But here's the crazy stuff, 35% of our monthly spending goes to food and 31% goes to miscellaneous stuff, so for every $1000 dollars we bring in, $660 is spend on food and random shit,
Let that sink in...
This is massive, because these are for the most part variable costs, they're discretionary, and they fluctuate day to day, week to week, based on our wants, needs and desires.
So in other words, we are wasting a shit tonne of money that could be better used here!
The other thing I decided to do was to audit our investments;
57% of our household investment strategy is tied up in our home (equity not value), 24% is cash & 19% shares/crypto, but here's the big one....
Only 26% of our investment strategy is made up of Income Generating Assets (IGA), the other 74% is made up of
Non-Income Generating Assets (NIGA), in other words 74% of our assets do not produce any usable income, dividends or cash return;
If we are to become wealthy, this needs to change!
(*Note: I don't really want to class our cash in the bank as a IGA because it's return is negative after factoring in inflation, but for this assessment I have)
So here are our goals to future financial freedom;
1) Decrease our consumption
2) Increase our IGA's
3) Increase our household income
How do you fair up? Are you on the right path?
Az
HAVE YOU MADE THE LEAP YET?
And they're good, I mean really good!
What they're made me realise, is that I've never sat down and done a full audit of our finances, our spending, our consumption habits and our investment breakdowns, so it's what I've been doing this week, and here's what I found;
Over the last month 24% of our household spending has gone to our mortgage, 10% has gone to utilities, so we could say that 34% of our monthly spending goes to fixed costs, which more that likely wont change.
But here's the crazy stuff, 35% of our monthly spending goes to food and 31% goes to miscellaneous stuff, so for every $1000 dollars we bring in, $660 is spend on food and random shit,
Let that sink in...
This is massive, because these are for the most part variable costs, they're discretionary, and they fluctuate day to day, week to week, based on our wants, needs and desires.
So in other words, we are wasting a shit tonne of money that could be better used here!
The other thing I decided to do was to audit our investments;
57% of our household investment strategy is tied up in our home (equity not value), 24% is cash & 19% shares/crypto, but here's the big one....
Only 26% of our investment strategy is made up of Income Generating Assets (IGA), the other 74% is made up of
Non-Income Generating Assets (NIGA), in other words 74% of our assets do not produce any usable income, dividends or cash return;
If we are to become wealthy, this needs to change!
(*Note: I don't really want to class our cash in the bank as a IGA because it's return is negative after factoring in inflation, but for this assessment I have)
So here are our goals to future financial freedom;
1) Decrease our consumption
2) Increase our IGA's
3) Increase our household income
How do you fair up? Are you on the right path?
Until next time
Az
HAVE YOU MADE THE LEAP YET?