The Wellness Traveler

27/01/2023

Partying all night is out : HBOT is in.

Traveling & want to layer in true integrative wellness into your trip but don’t know where to start??

💌 [email protected]

Forget raucous nights spent drinking and dancing — book in for a hyperbaric session instead

16/01/2023

"TRAVEL FAR ENOUGH. YOU MEET YOURSELF”

I’ve found it’s often the experiences that bring us OUT of our comfort zone that truly help us refresh & recalibrate. Whether in mind, body or energy - changing our environment (even for a short while) can reignite - & do us SO much good.

Travel has always been a vital component of my life & I couldn’t be more excited to now have the capacity to help others expand their perspective, heal, adventure & create lifelong memories.

For years you’ve been sending DM‘s asking for top wellness destinations, thoughts on this retreat or that hotel, where to find the best waves at a certain time of year et al.

✈️🌎💡so in 2022 I became a certified travel advisor!

So now, when I book your hotel or experience you have access to free upgrades, perks & wellness amenities. You finally have someone on your travel team that’s just as particular about light, gym access, WiFi routers, air quality & so much more.

I am waiving my planning fees for the the first 3 clients in February.

DM me “🌎” to learn more!

28/11/2022

🇧🇷 Cheering on Brazil in the World Cup

24/09/2022

If you aren't actively building your life you may as very well be destroying it. Liminal is a thing but don’t enjoy it too much. Every choice you make sets course for a new path. And, friend, NOT making that choice intentionally… just sets you up for a casual but non impactful path. While (maybe?) nice in the short term (less effort, less control… it’s still LESS). It’s not your path. It’s accepting what is, which is a hand out.

P.S. Systems need ENERGY to function properly. You absolutely need to put energy toward your vision, goals, and prioritize. Hey there 5th grade lessons in Newtons Laws. Otherwise you wind up feeding anxiety due to the liminal, which feeds overwhelm - and neither are going to be patient with you. NEITHER.

Make a decision friend. Sista. Buddy. Homie. Make it.

Simple choices feed a bigger beast. Make them. Don’t wait for the winds to blow you towards YOUR future. The course is yours to chart. 🛸

23/09/2022

Intentional travel makes you rich in ways money never will..

In 2016 I packed a backpack and bought a one-way ticket to Spain. My biggest mistake: I didn’t release attachments to my location.

I kept my beautiful apartment in the highly sought after Presidio in San Francisco. While I left all my biohacking toys, comforts & computer behind - I kept the apartment.

You know the saying “the things you own end up owning you"…

I wound up traveling for 4 months, and the ONLY reason I came home was because I was spending WAY too much on my SF apartment. The financial, locational attachment and energy requirement to keep that aprtment as “mine” just wasn’t worth it.

If I had ONLY made the decision to release my attachment to my identify as a “SF-er living in a very desirable neighborhood” - I would have followed a very different path.

I would have probably bought a computer abroad & set up my startup while living in Budapest. While there’s not a piece of this trip that I regret & I’m so grateful for the time that I had… it did teach me an expensive lesson around attachment…

Whether it material, physical, mental or energetic - our attachments often hinder us.

Don’t think that a “once in a lifetime” attachment (in my case, a home) is a reason to not pursue things that set your soul on fire…

Here’s to living an impactful, grounded & intentional life … but, attachment-free 🌎

📸 Piazza Maggiore watching the World Cup with old & new friends from our hostel

15/09/2022

Patagonia continues to inspire…

Instead of “going public,” you could say we’re “going purpose.” wrote Yvon Chouinard Who is also the author of the infamous ‘Let my people go surfing’. 

Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.

If you haven’t read Yvon Chouinard’s letter pleas do.

You’ll be inspired to be a part of an entirely different form of capitalism.

We're standing extractive capitalism on its head in an unprecedented way. Patagonia created a way to lock in its purpose as a company—we’re in business to save our home planet—and unlock more funds for fighting the climate and extinction crisis.

12/08/2022

G O L D 🦁 S E A S O N

26/07/2022

Whether it’s kiting on the edge of Nicaragua or healing back from a tick bite in Sag Harbor - each takes a special kind of RESILIENCE.

While resilience should be self-owned, it’s pretty nice to have a compassionate, generous & patient human that stands (or naps) with you while you rebuild yours 🤍🫶🏼

25/07/2022

Since mission “move sunglasses from my life” in 2019 - the number of photos I’ve never posted because my eyes are closed while looking into the sun is too many to count…

📸 in Brooklyn, NY on Halloween 2021.

I’d been up until almost 5 AM partying in costume & had set out on a food tour at 10am. I needed to reset my circadian rhythm so I could function like a human on Monday - so definitely joined the no sunglass club.

It was painful, you could see how tired I was (no hiding behind big sunglasses at brunch) - but I did it because sunlight I’m your eyes is an imperative for a properly functioning circadian rhythm (among other things).

Everyone in NYC on your walks around with big glasses. They move from blue lit to blue lit place with sunglasses in between and never letting their body/eyes reset. No wonder there’s so many folks on uppers and then downers at night - and just feel energetically drained 😵‍💫

anyway if today was a day that you were considering ditching sunglasses to improve your health. Let my squinty eyed cat eared pic be that for you…

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
🫶🏼

13/07/2022

A mental wealth service to all. Slow the f**k down. For a day, a week, a month. The pace you return at will be exponential..

Inspired by: .travel
_______________________

13/07/2022

You can't add anything different if you haven't done anything different.

Ex*****on in line with this can take many forms, but layer any of the below with some curiosity and you can't help but expand your frame:

• Meeting new people
• Asking more questions
• Working unusual jobs
• Geographic and cultural exposure (in person and through media)
• Consuming media other people rarely consume
_______________________________

It's largely about calculated risk and trust.

The risk part: doing something when you don't know what's going to happen in advance, and trading your time to find out.

The trust part: knowing that you will learn something either way.

Nothing here is the answer, but all of it should lead to better questions.

🤍

04/06/2022

PUFA's are immune suppressors, will slow down your metabolism, ruin your thyroid function, increase insulin levels, induce stress + wreak havoc on your hormones.

The combination of too many PUFAs, excess iron, and rising endotoxin is like an inflammation and stress time bomb waiting to go off.

So what are PUFAS? PUFAS are fatty acids with many double carbon bonds,
compared to the single bonds that make up saturated fat. Because PUFAS have many double bonds, they're naturally
more reactive to oxygen and heat than single bonds are & more susceptible to oxidative stress in and outside of the human body.

These fats have been pushed not just as better alternatives to cooking oils, but also as “essential" in the sense that we
should be supplementing them!

However, the data doesn't support this, nor does it make any sense that humans should suddenly need to get high amounts of these fats from our diets when our bodies can actually produce their own much more stable forms of fatty acids without the need to consume extra! Although there is no way to avoid PUFAS entirely, we have been OVER CONSUMING these fats for the past century, with serious consequences to our metabolic health.

Luckily, more and more people are catching on about veg oils and starting to switch back to more traditional
fats, such as butter, coconut oil, tallow, lard etc. Yay.

BUT.. I still see A LOT of folks within the health space promoting the consumption of nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes, as if these are superfoods, while completely
ignoring the fact that seeds, nuts, legumes, and grains are the GREATEST sources of PUFAS in our diets. Minimal amounts of FRESH nuts, seeds, & properly prepared grains are not harmful, but unfortunately this isn't how PUFAS are often consumed.…

Now connecting PUFAS to the sun. I bet if you live a diet low and p**p us and exercise safe sun exposure… You never burn. I know I don’t. Ever.

That’s not to say if you haven’t been in the sun for say, 6 months, eat a lower PUFA diet and go outside in the sun you’re not going to turn pink - it’s an equation.

Continued 👇🏽👇🏽

25/05/2022

The best kind of blind date can be found at a tiny a bookshop somewhere between Marseille & Toulon in the South of France.

22/05/2022

When I lived in Costa Rica last year I healed a lot of my remaining autoimmune issues that lingered post a 2nd contraction of Lyme in 2020.

When I think back to WHAT did it..It wasn’t the food that healed me. It wasn’t the community. And, it wasn’t the lifestyle per say - I DEFINITELY burnt the candle at both ends. But, it may have been the access to frequent outdoor activity & flow inducing activities. Namely: surfing.

Maybe it had a lot to do with the healing effect of negative ions x the nervous system and brain clearing effect of flow. It definitely wasn’t because I spent my days taking selfies in a bikini on the beach. 🙄 This may actually be one of the few photos I have pre-surf.. it wasn’t about capturing experiences on camera to share with the world. It was about LIVING them and being present.

Negative ions are cool. They’re believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin & were more definitely aplenty while I ate s**t beneath the waves in Tama. "The action of the pounding surf creates negative air ions and we also see it immediately after spring thunderstorms when people report lightened moods," says ion researcher Michael Terman, PhD, of Columbia University in New York.

Negative ions increase the flow of oxygen to the brain; resulting in higher alertness, decreased drowsiness, and more mental energy," says Pierce J. Howard, PhD, author of The Owners Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind Brain Research and director of research at the Center for Applied Cognitive Sciences in Charlotte, N.C

Negative ions also seemingly help to revitalize cell metabolism & neutralize free radicals - which support the mitigation of inflammation and general healing..

So what are ions?? ⚡️Ions are molecules that have gained or lost an electrical charge. They are created in nature as air molecules break apart due to sunlight, radiation, and moving air and water. You can buy ion generators for home as well - although there’s something so beautiful and synergistic about actually experiencing ions and photons in nature….

📸 Tamarindo, CR Dec 2020

12/05/2022

Simple & easy list of ways to stay active while traveling. My favorite is trying a boutique studio (which usually has great intro deals) in a new city. You get the opportunity to sweat, meet locals, can ask other active folks what they do and get rec's for healthy food options.

https://www.wellandgood.com/vacation-workouts/

Fitness pros share 10 vacation workouts that let them have fun while traveling the world and staying in shape.

26/04/2022

Think you’re a fast runner? Put yourself in front of a s**t ton of bulls and see how THAT turns out.

That’s exactly what I did to celebrate my birthday a few years ago. No better way to Biohack right? Putting your genetics, training & longevity to the test 😬

San Fermin was a solid week of casual raging & putting my power-favoring ACTN3 genotype on deck. I’d been doing CrossFit & power workouts for a few years at that point so felt SUPER confidant on my speed..

I met up a friend, made new ones, drank kalimotxo (Coca-cola mixed with red wine) & put my body between the open road and a s**t ton of bulls.

Needless to say. I survived.

Point being: do new things that thrill & excite you. They don’t have to be life threatening but enough to get your adrenaline flowing and cortisol up. You may even heal something if you do it consistently enough. Entraining yourself into a little thing called flow.

And don’t knock kalimotxo until you try it on a hot summer day in Pamplona. 👌🏽

25/03/2022

Fascinating research perspective on what authenticity truly is… leaves me with more questions than answers.

What is our true self? Is there such a thing?

One of the more interesting papers I read this week was about the “true self,” from social psychologist Roy Baumeister. He suggests that our unique feeling of authenticity comes from whether we are acting in line with the reputation we want.

In other words, people feel most in line with their true selves when they achieve the reputation they want. Failure at achieving it, or losing it, will feel less authentic. But, when caught doing something they’re ashamed of, people say things like, “That’s not who I am” or “That wasn’t really me.”

Put differently, people tend to feel more authentic when they are doing things society values, rather than following their own innermost desires.

You might think that the true self would be most apparent when people are defying social influences. But people feel more true to themselves when they go along with social influences. I’d like to say this is generally true and after the last two years you have to admit - more people divided after falling pray to medical marketing & social cohesion than actually stood up against the fallacies being spread. There are very few people who decided to move forward in life at the expense of their family, friends, and depending where they live - life experiences a because social cohesion was more important.

Baumeister suggests that the true self isn’t a real thing.

It’s an idea and an ideal. The true self is how we fondly imagine we could be. When we act in accordance with that ideal, then we think “that’s who I am.” When we stray from it, we think “that’s not me.”

That makes me wonder how many of us are living our true selves at the expense of societies approval?

23/03/2022

18/03/2022

📸 2019 in PDC, MX

I f-ing love living in beach towns where it’s super okay to run errands in your bathing suit (even better if you’re not s*xualized by locals while you do it).

Big fan of multitasking as a full fledged ADD’d biohacker. I can easy to get some ☀️ exposure while running errands, getting in a few thousand steps and then easy peasy - throw on a shirt before heading into a coffee shop to hop in front of pixels.

18/03/2022

How impressive nature’s healing powers can be—just a few moments of green can perk up a tired brain. The smell of phytocinides can clam your nervous system. Touching the earth with your bare feet can calm inflammation and just seeing nature can bring us a sense of well-being.

The power of neeeture has become of vogue to talk about (finally!!) but I’ve been learning, sharing & been empowered by our Mother Earth since I was a toddler thanks to having a field scientist for a father. A 50 year disruptor in climate science and physics I spent my childhood running around the forests of Germany, Austria & Czech Republic followed by a lesson in Newton, wave formation or energy transfer. It was the best way to learn - connecting experience, feeling, reason & subjectivity across …. life.

Working in digital these days I can’t escape the pixel life so I do have a few tricks up my sleeve to induce the feeling that nature brings me - energetic focus. My favorite of late is having Nue Co’s nature inducing spray at my desk and doing some deep inhalations alongside a few sprays.

Swipe right to learn how nature heals across our senses.

If triggering smell is a thing for you (like it is for me) the link below + code SPENDSAVE100 will give you 20% off anything on their site. The scent I love is called forest lungs & there’s more info on it carousel above!

🌿 https://x.well-hacking.com/forest

28/02/2022

Freedom and autonomy are critical to well being, and that choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. But, a la Kierkegaard - analysis paralysis - the vast number of choices available today often can be a massive source of stress.

We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But social psych tends to say the opposite: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

While the book brings up quite a few concepts it does go to far (you don’t need to read it tbh, I shared the biggest takeaway) in saying we would be better off with fewer choices. I 100% disagree unless I’m building out a user research form for a client of - than LESS is in fact, more.

But en route to helping founders be at peace with their choices and our prioritization framework I’ve had them do a little 10 question quiz (swipe right for link) to determine if they’re a satisficer or a maximizer (swipe right for what those are too).

If you decide to take the quiz I’d love to know what decision-making approach you’re aligned with!

28/02/2022

Freedom and autonomy are critical to well being, and that choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. But, a la Kierkegaard - analysis paralysis - the vast number of choices available today often can be a massive source of stress.

We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But social psych tends to say the opposite: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

While the book brings up quite a few concepts it does go to far (you don’t need to read it tbh, I shared the biggest takeaway) in saying we would be better off with fewer choices. I 100% disagree unless I’m building out a user research form for a client of - then leas is more.

But en route to helping founders be at peace with their choices and our prioritization framework I’ve had them do a little 10 question quiz (swipe right for link) to determine if they’re a satisficer or a maximizer (swipe right for what those are too).

If you decide to take the quiz I’d love to know what decision-making approach you’re aligned with!

20/02/2022

A few wisdoms curated & developed across startups, wellness & travel:

- To better understand anyone's childhood, learn which things were way harder for them than they were for you.
- Stay focused on the outcome, not your original strategy.
- Before you freak out about how you are feeling right now, ask yourself how much (or how little) you're having of sleep, food, s*x, water, exercise, alcohol, drugs, sunshine, human touch, family time, and prob some other stuff I don't know of but you definitely will.
- Sometimes in life, even though it's not your fault, it's still your problem.

- When you first try to meditate, it'll feel like you're doing it wrong and are terrible at it. Eventually, you'll figure out that being terrible at meditation and feeling like you're doing it wrong is kind of the whole point of meditation. In truth, as long as you keep getting back to your practice, you are actually great at meditation, and you are doing very well at it.
- Priorities are like arms. If you think you have more than a couple, you're either lying or crazy.
- If you're not sure what you want, it's almost definitely more sleep.

- To an anxious person, it often feels like the only way to achieve relaxed certainty is to keep seeking new information. But, remember that the more you know, the more you'll realize you don't know. And, then, you'll usually just find yourself fretting about getting more and more information, et cetera. Incline yourself towards getting out of the information centrifuge.
- Please stop saying "impact" (v.) if you just mean "affect" (v.). It makes you sound like a lame PowerPoint prez.

- If you really want to help someone, offer something extremely specific. "I'm here for you! " is not nearly as impactful as "Can I edit this image on your website so it doesn't load so slow?". Specifics, clarity and low effort solutions matter!

︾ Continued below ︾

20/02/2022

A few wisdoms curated & developed across startups, wellness & travel:

- To better understand anyone's childhood, learn which things were way harder for them than they were for you.
- Stay focused on the outcome, not your original strategy.
- Before you freak out about how you are feeling right now, ask yourself how much (or how little) you're having of sleep, food, s*x, water, exercise, alcohol, drugs, sunshine, human touch, family time, and prob some other stuff I don't know of but you definitely will.
- Sometimes in life, even though it's not your fault, it's still your problem.

- When you first try to meditate, it'll feel like you're doing it wrong and are terrible at it. Eventually, you'll figure out that being terrible at meditation and feeling like you're doing it wrong is kind of the whole point of meditation. In truth, as long as you keep getting back to your practice, you are actually great at meditation, and you are doing very well at it.
- Priorities are like arms. If you think you have more than a couple, you're either lying or crazy.
- If you're not sure what you want, it's almost definitely more sleep.

- To an anxious person, it often feels like the only way to achieve relaxed certainty is to keep seeking new information. But, remember that the more you know, the more you'll realize you don't know. And, then, you'll usually just find yourself fretting about getting more and more information, et cetera. Incline yourself towards getting out of the information centrifuge.
- Please stop saying "impact" (v.) if you just mean "affect" (v.). It makes you sound like a lame PowerPoint prez.

- If you really want to help someone, offer something extremely specific. "I'm here for you! " is not nearly as impactful as "Can I edit this image on your website so it doesn't load so slow?". Specifics, clarity and low effort solutions matter!

Continued below