800 pounds is a LOT of weight. Put that weight onto the shoulders of an average man and it’ll crush him straight down into the ground. Now imagine loading 800 pounds onto your shoulders and squatting down until your thighs are parallel with the ground, and then fighting your way out of the hole back to standing. Squatting this much weight is an almost impossible achievement. At most … [Read more...]
1000 Mile Solo
My Experience With Keto for BJJ
The ketogenic diet is really hot right now for weight loss, health, disease prevention and longevity. And in early 2018 as I was getting ready for my 1000 mile solo trip in the Arctic I gave it a really serious try. (This is because on a per calorie basis fat weighs half as much as protein and carbohydrate. Which means that if keto had been successful for me then I would have been able to … [Read more...]
My Solo 1000 Mile Journey from Missinipe Saskatchewan to Arviat Nunavut, Updates from the Field
I'm started this post before setting out on a 1000 mile journey by canoe, alone across the northern boreal forest and Canadian tundra. 12 days before I started the trip I shot a video answering most the questions I got before the trip (what about bears, what kind of boat, will I be fishing, etc.) and going into detail about my plans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrAU1acJCEM The … [Read more...]
How to Achieve Giant Goals
Big goals take a long time and a lot of work to accomplish, otherwise everyone would do them! The 1000 Mile Solo trip that I pulled off in the summer of 2019 had actually been a looooong time in the making. It was actually in 1992 that I first heard of Nueltin Lake and the Thlewiaza River and thought that someday, somehow, I would like to do that journey. (I came across this route while … [Read more...]
The Realities of Wilderness Travel
In the Instagram lifestyle you only see people's highlight reels. That one perfect photo of someone doing something much cooler than you. But this is a heavily edited and curated version of that person's life. What that perfect photo doesn't convey is all the blood, sweat and tears that went into setting up the situation in which that photo could be taken. This topic of reality vs … [Read more...]
Why Do a Major Wilderness Trip Alone?
When I told people I would be going on a canoe expedition in the arctic for 6 to 7 weeks alone (The 1000 Mile Solo), most thought it was a strange thing to be traveling in complete solitude for so long. Here's the thing... as a species we are mostly pack animals, but I also think it's an important part of the human experience to be able to do things on your own once in a while. If you are … [Read more...]
ABT, or “Always Be Thinking” (Podcast Episode 224)
When the going gets tough then the tough get thinking! This episode of The Strenuous Life Podcast was recorded by me in a tent on the 1000 Mile Solo. Nominally it's about the difficulties of navigating across some of the biggest and most complex lakes in North America, but the larger concept of not shutting off your mind when things get difficult definitely applies to many different kinds of … [Read more...]
Follow Your Dreams? Yes, Absolutely, But It’s Not As Simple As Some Would Lead You to Believe…
People tend to believe that to chase a dream, one must keep working on it at full speed and total intensity until they achieve it. And while you DEFINITELY need commitment and consistency to get anywhere having a super-hardcore approach all the time can be a giant mistake. For example, the physically intense 1000 mile solo canoe trip that I did in the summer of 2019 took years to organise, and … [Read more...]
A Close Call with a Bear (Podcast Episode 227)
Today's podcast episode was recorded a few hours after a close call with a bear in Canada's far north. I was on Nueltin lake, a gigantic body of water straddling Manitoba and Nunavut. The southern portions of this lake are in the boreal forest but as you travel north you get into barren lands tundra. Paddling from forest to tundra on Nueltin Lake was stage 6 of 7 on my 1000 Mile Solo in … [Read more...]
7 Tips for Maintaining Motivation
Do you ever find yourself struggling to stay on track and complete a task that you've wanted to do for a long time? Of course you have, and it's completely normal! We all have moments where we just can't seem to find any motivation. Let's talk about how to maintain motivation over the long haul. How to Achieve Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals Here's the truth of the matter... Achieving any … [Read more...]
1000 Miles by Canoe in the Arctic, Alone
In this episode I talk about a 1,000 mile solo trip through Canada's arctic that I'm planning to do from July 1st to mid August 2019. This trip is both to celebrate having survived a kidney transplant and to bring awareness to organ donation (click here for the full story on that). If f you have Google Earth installed on your computer then here's a Google Drive link for the kmz file for … [Read more...]
Date-Almond Energy Balls
Yes I'm sharing a recipe today but don't worry, there's no danger of this turning into a cooking blog!!! It's just that I've been asked for this recipe so many times that it would be silly not to have a post I can point people to. Obviously do lot of jiu-jitsu and fitness stuff, but the outdoors are a big part of my life as well. For example, after my kidney transplant in 2015 a huge … [Read more...]
A Detailed Account of my Kidney Transplant and Recovery
In 2015 I was dying of a kidney disease. I was down to 12% of normal kidney function, my blood pressure was soaring out of control, and my electrolytes were completely haywire. But then on June 8th I had a major, life-saving surgery. The red bag in the picture above was sitting on the shelf as I was rolled into the operating room. It contained my brother's kidney which had been cut out of … [Read more...]