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  • Thoughts on…August 2022 Edition

    It’s been four looooong years since I’ve done one of these blogs. If you’ve read none of the earlier editions, here’s what’s up: these are my notes from the cleverly named ‘Random Notes’ file I keep on my phone. Stuff I pick up and find interesting as I go through life.

    And, as is often the case with these Thoughts on… posts, this one doesn’t follow any specific pattern or theme. As you shall see.

    Here goes.

    “As the world keeps getting faster, there’s actually a shortage of thoughtful, timeless ideas that are worth sharing an hour or a week later.” – Seth Godin

    Instead of trying to motivate yourself to stick with a new behaviour, choose tiny habits, make them easy and match them with your personality.

    After CURRENT ACTION I will NEW HABIT. After NEW HABIT I will REWARD.
    “After pouring a cup of coffee, I will write one word. After writing, I will read.”

    Do something only a few people are willing to do.

    “To reduce the feeling of needing more in life, make three lists. One list of the things, people etc you absolutely need in your life. One list of things you want to have. And one list with things that would be nice to have.” – Charlie Weingroff

    The desire for a simple strategy that makes sense trumps science and leverages cultural beliefs. Unsurprisingly, most of the idiotic conspiracy theories have their roots in here.

    ”I think if the industry changes its focus away from having to blame one causative factor and looks at the task, the job, the work environment, and the person as a whole, we can truly find out what the root cause is (or causes) and make bigger changes to prevent recurrence that go beyond the individual changing their habits.” – ? [If you know who’s comment this is, please let me know so I can credit them]

    A school that teaches basic life “stuff” for kids that aren’t taught in traditional school. Meditation, philosophy of life, cooking, finance, movement.

    Reading the best sellers is good when you want social approval. But that’s not where the returns in life are. – Naval Ravikante

    You don’t create a tribe. You find a tribe that already exists and give them something new to talk about.

    “It [training for general health] is so simple that we seek complication to stimulate ourselves” – Mike Boyle

    When someone tells you what bothers them or worries them, don’t be condescending or rush to fix it. Acknowledge how they feel.

    Make it a culture where everyone can ask anyone for help.

    Living in the moment with contentment.

    Just because you’re out of work doesn’t mean your work is not good. Just because you make a lot of money doesn’t mean you’re doing a good work.

    When struggling to learn a new movement, change it to a movement in the same pattern you can already do without thinking. Learn a movement by regressing to what you can do with limited instruction. Then progress back up.

    You learn to write by working with outstanding editors.

    “We have a society that looks for excuses for their behaviour.” – Gray Cook

    The person will not always believe what you tell them. But they will believe themselves.

    Virtual reality feels more engaging than a movie because a movie follows a narrative. Reality doesn’t. The best part about Pulp Fiction is about a cheeseburger. And it has nothing to do with the plot. – ? [If you know who’s comment this is, please let me know so I can credit them.]

    Saxophone is often only a small part of the Springsteen songs, but with an enormous impact. Imagine Jungleland without Clarence’s solos.

    First thing when getting together with old friends is to tell old stories. It’s how we reconnect.

    “For six to eight weeks, do only carries. For six to eight weeks do hinging, pressing and carrying.” – probably Dan John

    When you feel angry, anxious or frustrated:
    – Smile (if possible in the situation)
    – Take a deep breath
    – “Be a role model”
    – Find humour

    No one is self-made. Genetics and society you were born into are the most important factors.

    If you only have access to light weights: 2020 tempo without locking @ 20-50% 1RM for hypertrophy and fitness. Until failure.

    You don’t need to ace everything. 8+ is good enough for most things in life.

    There’s a difference between being great at something and teaching others to be great at it. Being great doesn’t make you a great teacher. Being shitty doesn’t make you a shitty teacher.

    When trying to get young kids to do something and they’re not listening:
    – Try to see it from their perspective. It’s not always rational.
    – Get to their level, hold them and say it in a calm, clear voice.
    – Gently direct them towards what you want them to do.

    A community for people to keep each other accountable to stay active and eat well. Doesn’t have to be a workout. Doesn’t have to follow a specific diet. You show up to work on your health and fitness however you want to show up. As long as you show up. **If you’d like to be a part of this community, reply and let me know.**

    90% training and diet is the same for all. It works because it works. 10% is the ice cream.

    Practice meeting people where they’re at.

    Seek fulfilment in what you do instead of waiting for something to give it to you.

    Single KB Easy Strength:
    Clean and Press x 3 sets
    Goblet Squat x 1 set
    Pull-ups x 2 sets
    Farmer Walk / Ab work / Get up
    – Dan John

    If The Godfather would’ve been vegan: a block of tofu instead of horse’s head.

    Ooze humility, honesty, humour.

    Being offended doesn’t mean being right.

    When you give up the fight, you get time. Time stretches. You sink into the moment, and it seems infinite. You have all the time in the world. – ? [If you know who’s comment this is, please let me know so I can credit the them.]

    What does it mean to live a good life?

    “You don’t have to put more hours into each day. Instead:
    Spend 20 minutes doing something that scares you.
    Spend 20 minutes doing something that is generous.
    Spend 20 minutes doing something that might not work.
    If you do that, that’s enough. It’s not about working harder.” – Seth Godin

    —

    Told you it was going to be all over the place.

    If, for some reason, you’d like to peruse the earlier Thoughts on… editions, they live here.

    – J

  • Invisible constraints

    I enjoy vacuuming. Of all the choices in the domestication canon, vacuuming has to be my favorite. Just to be clear, it’s not like go looking for places to vacuum for fun. But, still. Vacuuming has its own kind of weird, loud attraction to it.

    Yet, my recent history with vacuuming is anything but rosy. When we moved I became a stereotypical, vacuum hating “I’ll mop the floor and do the dishes instead” kind of guy. To give you some context, most days I would have rather gone to the IKEA pillow section than run circles with the old dust buster. And the nearest IKEA is a half a day’s drive away.

    But I knew this could only go on for so long.

    The day I examined my negative bond with the vacuum cleaner.

    I realised that our vacuum cleaner has an abnormally short cord. It used to be the standard length (as far as I can tell with zero research about it), but we had the cord changed a while back. And the fine folks fixing it must’ve replaced the old cord with a toaster cord. Which is just long enough to do a room and bit at a time.

    So each time I’d vacuum, I’d do one room, unplug, fiddle with the socket in the next room, plug the damn thing in, vacuum that room, and then repeat the process a few more times to get the entire house done.

    Talk about a scarring experience. I had had enough.

    I went and got a 15 meter extension cord. This allows us to get the entire house done without unplugging the red, loud, battle-scarred hell-on-three-wheels. And as they say in the best kind of movies, the rest is history.

    Sometimes, we need to take a step back.

    And look at our struggles with a curious mind.

    Forcing healthy eating habits or trying to hopelessly claw on to your strength training routine doesn’t always work when there are invisible constraints in your life.

    It could be unmanaged stress or anxiety, lack of sleep, demanding family life, work, wine, or late night Better Caul Saul marathons. All of those can derail the most well thought out plans. Regardless of the motivation burning under your heels.

    It’s easier to march forward once you find and fix your invisible constraints. Unfortunately, most of them can’t be fixed with a 15 meter extension cord.

    – J

  • An avoidable fight

    Often, the only way we find satisfaction and happiness is by comparing ourselves to other people. Whether we’re looking up, down, or straight ahead, we use others as a measuring stick for our own success. Their position on the stick allows us to evaluate our career, health, wealth, looks and life.

    And although comparing ourselves to others is an ingrained part of our nature, it rarely serves us well. Like the placement of prostate, it’s one of those pieces of evolution that takes a while to understand. If then.

    Constantly comparing ourselves to others invites jealousy and judgement into our thinking. It makes us feel inadequate and superior towards others. Neither of which contribute to a constructive life.

    And as you know, what happens at the individual level increases exponentially when it happens in groups. Whether it’s in our families, communities, cities or countries.

    There has to be a better way.

    Improving one’s mindfulness is one of these ways. Understanding the pitfalls of one’s mind makes it easier to notice unhelpful and destructive patterns in thinking. Patterns that seep into the rest of our lives and control our actions.

    It doesn’t mean that we’ll never struggle with comparing ourselves to others. We’re all human after all. And unless we’re all looking to become monks, some parts of our evolution are impossible to completely shake off.

    But I think it’s a step towards a calmer, more content life.

    – J

    p.s. Here’s something to ease into a (hopefully) calm weekend.

  • The window to your future

    When we get carried away by our current fitness goals, we often neglect the impact it has on our future. Grinding, raging, and smashing our way through each workout with the ferocity of a wild boar on speed will eventually take its toll on our body.

    Whether it’s about always pushing for the heavier weight, constantly running yourself to the ground on trails, or obsessing over whatever the latest hardcore home fitness craze of the moment is. What gets us carried away in the river of fitness is the temptation carrot of short-term results. The drool-inducing physique, the instant ego rub, the hope for glory.

    Competing is a whole another story, though. When competing in most things that are physically demanding, folks make the (hopefully) conscious decision to swap some of their longevity for the chance of winning.

    The rest of us, we need to stay humble.

    If we want to age gracefully, we can’t afford to treat each workout like it’s about the grind and glory. But about showing up for the practice. An opportunity to discover more about ourselves and our bodies. With a one eye firmly locked in on the long-term progress we’re hoping to make.

    Sure, being mindful about training is more work compared to just turning up and letting it all hang loose for 30-60 minutes.

    But if we really want to train for the now and for the future, we need to embrace the practice. While still intelligently pushing our limits. That’s our best chance for getting both.

    – J

    p.s. Talk about embracing practice and longevity. Arthur Brown’s been making music for 54 years. At 80, he still has it.

  • Questions and solutions

    When searching for answers, you have two options. One puts you in control. It requires you to reflect inwards and come up with a solution. The other option means giving the control to someone else. Giving them the permission to dictate the solution.

    Which option you choose depends on the context of your situation.

    When you see a doctor, a dentist or a physiotherapist, you expect them to provide a solution to your problem. Something you can implement immediately. Or something they can do for you right then and there. Besides the questions to understand your situation as it relates to your problem, you wouldn’t want a doctor to rely on you for the right answer.

    You’re not there for introspection. “Hey doctor, I’ve decided I need a kidney surgery. Can you operate on me tomorrow?” When dealing with physical pain, the last thing you want is coaching and more questions.

    But when it comes to improving your health and fitness, it’s likely that you already know what you should be doing.

    You already have all, or at least most, of the answers. And if you don’t, you can find them with a quick search. You don’t need a god-like expert.

    What you need is a coach. Someone to ask you better questions. Questions that force you to look inwards. Questions that allow you to find the right the answers for you.

    That’s what a good coach helps you to do. They help you think by asking questions you might not have thought of. Or the ones you’re too afraid to ask yourself. Questions that lead to answers that help you take action.

    A coach helps you to reflect. And then holds the space and guides you to find an answer. Without judgement.

    He or she gives you the autonomy to decide on how to move forwards. Within a framework that will serve you. And keeps you accountable to the actions you decide, together.

    Obviously, some people don’t want their health and fitness coach to ask questions either. They just want the exact roadmap to follow. This can work well in quick transformations or when the time to achieve specific results is otherwise rushed. Start of a soccer season, getting ready for skiing, wedding…

    But taking orders rarely leads to independent thinking and sustainable results. There’s no autonomy or ownership on your part. And you’re less likely to follow through when you have no say in what the answers will be.

    Which brings me to this.

    I have space for THREE new clients in my signature online coaching program.

    I am looking for folks over 40 who want to reclaim their strength, energy and fitness. Not by following orders, but by being an equal partner in a coaching relationship.

    You used to be fit. But for years, you’ve prioritised your work and the needs of other people ahead of your own wellbeing.

    It’s left you feeling weak and lethargic. And out of control.

    Time to take action.

    If that sounds like you, reply with “I’d like to know more”. And I’ll send you a quick message so we can see if and how this program might be a good fit for you.

    The coaching program is not cheap. And it’s not right for everyone. But it might just be right for you.

    – J

    ps. Now might not be the right time for you. That’s ok. I’ll let you know the next time I am taking on new clients.

  • Rusty cage

    Whatever you believe, it’s true.

    “I don’t have the motivation to exercise.”

    “I am addicted to sugar.”

    “I fail to understand the geopolitical situation in the sub-Saharan Africa.”

    Old and ingrained beliefs hold you back. The way you see yourself and the way you see the world are what built the cage you’re in.

    Often, it’s only your beliefs that keep you from bending the bars and walking out. And you’re unlikely to change your behaviour until you change what you believe.

    – J

    Or maybe you’d prefer Soundgarden’s version of the events.

  • The holy trinity of goal setting

    The end goal, the performance goal, the process goal. Depending on your personality, you’ll likely prefer one type over the other two.

    When setting my own goals, I am all for process goals. I do use the other two as well. But when I get fixated on the end or the performance goal, I become a jittery ball of anxiety.

    Maybe you’re the opposite and tend to ignore the process goals. Either way, too much focus on one type of goal is often what holds us back from achieving what we set out to do.

    In the perfect goal setting scenario, we’d all set a goal or two in each of the three categories.

    The end goal

    Probably the most straightforward goal to set. Regardless of your personality.

    Some examples of end goals:

    – Climb the Everest base camp and return without dying (or getting someone else killed)
    – Return playing weekend soccer after an injury
    – Do activities with the family on the weekends without knee pain
    – Complete three weekly workouts with moderate intensity without feeling wiped out afterwards

    The end goals are usually where people get carried away and set the bar way too high. By trying to do the impossible: Win Jean-Claude Van Damme in a dance-off.

    Or by setting a goal that’s next to impossible to reach in the given timeframe: Punch my shadow six weeks from now.

    You get the idea. Demotivation ensues.

    The performance goal

    This can easily overlap the end goal category. Especially when the end goal is also a performance goal.

    Some performance goal examples:

    – Reduce the time of the biweekly 20km hike. Gradually increase the backpack to 20kg
    – Run sprints and practice cutting without soreness in the operated leg
    – Do sets of goblet squats pain free and complete a one full push up

    If your end goal is more along the lines of a performance goal, I’d encourage to find a lower level performance goal as well. Something that can act as midway mark. Or two thirds way mark. Or six eights way mark.

    Any fraction really that feels worthy of doing.

    The process goal

    It’s all well to set ambitious end and process goals. But without actionable process goals, they’re just distant dreams.

    Good, focused process goals build the path to the end goal.

    And when you struggle or when the end goal feels like a distant relative you’ve never met, the process goals can carry you through. They help you focus on the present.

    – Take 5 minutes to meditate each day
    – Show up for 2-3 weekly strength workouts
    – Practice push ups each day
    – Eat a carrot and an orange each day (why not?)

    And I know this has been beaten to death but…

    When setting any kind of goals, use the SMART goal setting principles. As, sigh, incorporated as it sounds:

    Specific: Is your goal simple and unambiguous to define?

    Measurable: How do you know when you arrive?

    Achievable: Do you have what it takes to get there? Time, resources…

    Realistic: See above about JCVD dance-off.

    Timely: When are you going to get there (for end and performance goals)? When are you going to do it (for process goals)?

    Here’s the juice of it

    When setting your health and fitness goals, aim for a goal or two in all three categories:

    1. The end goal
    2. The performance goal
    3. The process goal

    Using the SMART goal setting principle. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.

    – J

    And here’s a tune to kick off the weekend. Her voice is something else.

  • Treat treats as treats

    In the pre-covid world, when I used to commute to work, it was nothing short of enlightening to observe how many people we’re passionately downing potato chips or candy on public transport. This happened mostly in the afternoon on their way to what I can only assume was their home.

    By downing, I don’t mean having a treat or two or even three. But clearly fisting their hand into a bag of crisps and candy. With the clear objective of elevating blood sugars and erasing the burning hunger.

    People get hungry after a long day. I get it.

    And undoubtedly there’s some stress releasing emotional eating in play for some. And sometimes you just need to eat something right now. And sometimes it’s nice to have a treat because why not. And I also understand that you now see me as a judgemental creep for checking people’s eating habits on the train.

    Oh well. In my defence, it’s less about judging and more about observing how people behave. In case that changes anything for you.

    Regardless, the quantities of treats easily fly off the handle when we treat treats like meals. If each time we’re feeling all Starving’ Marvin, we reach out for a pack of crisps or candy to eliminate that hunger, it’s no wonder our collective health is declining.

    I mean, it’s not an accident.

    But, there’s a relatively simple solution to reducing cravings.

    Well, simple, at least on the paper.

    It starts by eating a big breakfast and lunch that helps you stay full for the day. I know what you’re thinking now. “I am already eating big meals.” But I want it to be even bigger than what you’re imagining right at this very moment.

    Breakfast – If you’re even moderately active, aim no lower than 400 calories. But honestly, 500-600 is better for most. Depending on your size and activity levels, you could go up to 800-900 calories.

    If you work a demanding manual labour job (which you don’t. Me neither) you’d be looking for four digits for breakfast.

    Lunch – At least 600 calories for most people. As with breakfast, some folks need to go way higher.

    And once you’ve got those two meals sorted, aim to get dinner calories somewhere around 400-800. Perhaps more depending on what you’ve been up. But probably not lower.

    Eat bigger meals for a week or two and see what happens to your cravings.

    If the temptations of candy and whatnot are still keeping you in their evil chokehold, you might have to further increase the portions.

    Especially if you’ve been chronically under eating for a while.

    And I know you know this already, but here goes: get most of your calories from real food.

    Don’t obsess about getting your calories exactly right.

    Eyeballing and hand portions go a long way. Unless you have a zero concept of roughly how many calories typical food items in your diet contain. In which case, it’s helpful to track calories for a week or two.

    Any longer and it’s easy to get stuck on the obsessive calorie counting hamster wheel. On the miserable-scale, permanently living on a calorie counting wheel exists somewhere between a root canal operation and going to IKEA sober.

    At first, it might feel you’re force feeding yourself. It’ll pass.

    If you’re used to eating small meals or skipping meals altogether, it’ll take a while for your body and mind to get used to bigger portions.

    Yes, all of this takes a bit of planning and effort. But when the result of your effort is regaining the control of your hunger and cravings, it’s well worth.

    -J

    Also, there’s no denying that this must be the best titled blog I’ve ever written anywhere.

    Wait. No.

    This is the best blog title ever written anywhere by anyone.

    Come at me, internet.

  • Getting stronger with less work

    Training itself doesn’t get you stronger, fitter, and healthier. You get all those things because of how your body reacts to the training you’ve done. Nothing new there.

    You want your workouts to stimulate the positive reactions in the body. You know, hormones and stuff. The ones that encourage your body to pour energy into making you a more capable human being. Whether that means not getting out of breath when catching the ferry after a long lunch on the sauce. Or absolutely owning the steepest side of the mountain when skiing.

    You don’t want the body to think it’s under attack after each training session

    When this happens, the body will limit some or all of the resources needed for the positive reactions that progress your strength, fitness, and health.

    It will instead spend the resources on what it understands as trying to keep you from dying. Mostly figuratively speaking. (But not always. The long term consequences are a blog for another time.)

    The more severe this staying alive reaction, the less you have to show for your training efforts. You cannot progress when the conditions in your body aren’t favourable for progress to happen. You’re wasting your time. In fact, you might get worse.

    Stuff that can trigger a staying alive response

    The negative kind, that is. Not the restoring Bee Gees disco vibes.

    This first list you’ve heard before: not eating enough calories, carbs or protein, eating mostly rubbish, high stress or other psychological issues, not sleeping enough, dehydration, too many Sunday afternoons on the sauce, listening to Justin Bieber, watching The Kardashians…

    Pretty much anything that makes you feel something isn’t quite right. Whether it’s in your body or the world as a whole.

    Then there are the negative consequences of training too hard

    Approaching each training session like it’s a battlefield. As if you’re David and the stoic kettlebell, the personal trainer in the sleeveless shirt and sleeve tattoos, or the fitness instructor in those tight spandex is Goliath.

    But training too hard doesn’t mean going heavy. Because if you can go heavy, have at it. But you have to do it without the triggering the negative reactions in the body.

    Which brings us to the juice I’ve been squeezing in this blog.

    Training too hard = ignoring the need to rest

    The battlefield mentality means limiting rest periods and not letting the body recover enough for the next set. It’s about chasing tiredness. Treating each workout as an opportunity to figuratively beat something or someone into your embracing submission.

    Such as dominating an hour HIIT class (an oxymoron in itself) or a workout with rests that are on par or less than the work set durations. And then measuring the success of that based on how tired and sore you feel.

    Because getting tired still doesn’t mean getting better.

    Getting tired doesn’t even mean just getting tired. Getting tired means getting worse. It forces the body to pour its resources into staying alive instead of improving.

    And things only snowball when people do this multiple days straight. Something not too uncommon for fitness class enthusiasts. Eventually, they get to a point where they wonder why their strength, health or fitness isn’t improving. And why, despite all that effort, they’re not witnessing the promised sexification when they look in the mirror.

    But wait! There’s more. The risk of injury also goes up. Muscle activation and coordination take a hit when we’re tired. As you can see, it’s an all around shit show for the ages.

    Fitness junkies (Hey I should know. I was one.) are not seeing results because their body thinks it’s living under constant artillery fire. It makes little sense to spend energy on worrying about improvement or longevity when the immediate focus is on survival.

    Great things happen once you appreciate the importance of rest

    You’ll remove the handbrake that’s holding back your progress. You’ll see and feel your strength, health, fitness and body composition improve.

    And you’ll turbo charge those results because you can now train harder without triggering the negative reactions in the body. You will notice how much more power, strength and energy you can drive into each set. Instead of feeling like you’re paddling against the current in a river of melted cheddar.

    The upside of prioritising rest in the workout is that you don’t need as long breaks between sessions. Even if you went hard in the training.

    But limiting rest in both the workout and between the workouts? You cannot have both and still expect to see great results.

    Your work:rest ratio shouldn’t be less than 1:1

    Anything less than 1:1 work:rest only makes sense when your training loads are so low (for you) that it wouldn’t deliver the positive training response anyway. Rested or not. Which makes me question why anyone would go that light in the first place…

    Unless it’s for the social or mental benefits. In which case, yes. I am all for it.

    If your work set takes 45 seconds, you need at least 45 seconds of rest to get the most out of the work you’re putting in. And the closer you are to your max effort, the longer you need to rest. Both in strength training and in cardio.

    You’re not a powerlifter. But to use them as an example, their rests are often five times their work sets.

    Now, obviously you don’t need rests that long since your goal is to not win a powerlifting meet. And since training is unlikely to be your number one priority in life, it’d be ridiculous to ask you to spend a few hours on your training each time you do it. Let alone to ask you to rest most of that two hours.

    All of us want the best possible return for our training investment

    But we have families, jobs and whatnot. To get any meaningful training done, we have to settle for shorter rests.

    And accept that most of us are not getting the best possible response from our body to build our strength, fitness, and health. But if we’re as smart with our rest as we are with our training, we can get pretty close. Ideally above 80%.

    To get to that, aim for 1:1 – 1:2 work:rest ratio. Erring on the higher side. And take care of the other aspects that boost your body’s positive response to training. Stuff we covered earlier.

    You’ll probably end up doing less work compared to the past. But the work that’s left is going to be hard. And then you need to rest even harder.

    Getting >80% return for your training is good enough for anyone whose job, income or survival doesn’t depend on being Batman or Sarah Connor for 24/7.

    I happily put my spoon into that soup.

    -J

  • Escaping from lactose intolerant dinner guests

    We know that being physically tired has a negative effect on our physical skills.

    Climbing a cliff and trying to decide which spot to grab on next. Going for a three point throw in the last second of the game. Deciding on which door to choose when being chased by an angry mob of lactose intolerant dinner guests after you forgot you were not supposed to put cow’s milk in the lasagne.

    Then there is the decline of cognitive skills. Stuff that we don’t normally associate with fitness. Deciding on how to disciplining your kids. Picking a meal for dinner. Managing people at work and not being a dick about it.

    All of those skills are suboptimal when we get tired.

    Some attack the issue by trying to improve the skill while tired so they can then mimic it in a real life situation. Anger management for tired parents, anyone?

    And it will not work. Because, being tired has a negative effect on our cognitive and physical skills.

    Practicing a skill while you’re tired doesn’t make you better at the skill. You can’t develop your interpersonal or physical skills when you’re exhausted. None of that practice will stick. That’s a fact that even Batman has to accept.

    Others focus solely on improving the skill while feeling fresh. But, if you can shoot a three pointer and navigate interpersonal relationships with ease when you’re feeling at your best, it’s likely that working to improve the skill further is not the answer. You know how to do it. You already have it.

    By now, you’ve probably figured what you need to do to not be a dick or perform dickishly when tired.

    Don’t get as tired in the first place.

    Elevate your health and fitness to a new level. So when it comes to go-time, the tiredness is not pulling your skills and decision making into the suboptimal abyss.

    This applies to escaping an angry (and likely, farting) anti milk disaccharide digesting mob. As it does to being a calmer parent at the end of a long work day.

    – J

    ps. to all my fellow lactose intolerant friends, I say this. I feel you. Always double check with the lasagne maker before eating. And even then, proceed with caution.