The Cole Memo

In this episode, I sit down with Charles Flanagan. During the episode, Charles and I share our struggles with mental health and addiction. We also discuss fitness, health, food, cannabis, the iron law of prohibition, and much more.

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The auto-generated transcript is available below.

hello and welcome this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released an audio video and transcript format to find the transcript audio or video version of any episode please refer to the description of the episode that you’re listening to now within that description you can find a link that will take you to our website which will display the transcript for this episode and the platforms where you can find this episode in audio or video formats if you are unable to locate the episode description on whichever platform you’re listening from Simply take note of the episode number and then visit the co memo.com from there you can use the search functionality to find the corresponding episode and then you’ll be able to access the audio video or transcript version of the episode you might also find any links that we reference during the episode so that you might be able to do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode of the co memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode later than our patrons to become a patron go to the memo.com patreon it’s a great way to support our show but one of the best ways to support our show is absolutely free subscribe to or follow the show leave us a positive review from wherever you’re listening to us from favorite this episode give it a thumbs up leave a comment or share it with your best friend your engagement and support is appreciated today is April 9th 2024 and I’ll be sitting down with Charles Flanigan [Music] once again folks sitting down with Charles Flanigan I am going to have their link tree in the podcast description so once again if you just look below you’ll see all of the links so that you can get connected there’ll be social media links and everything else uh Charles welcome to the show hey thanks a lot Cole glad to be on the show brother yeah yeah and uh if you could tell me a little bit about yourself uh yeah where you from all that good stuff hey so where I’m from I was born in California or Orange County baby um born and raised but then I born but then I moved to um Pacific Northwest Kirkland Washington you know Kirkland uh first place where Costco was originally Kirkland BR select so I lived there uh went to school there went to uh College out there and you know shortly after uh couldn’t deal with the rain um it’s a number one place for rain and you know all that bad weather kind of stuff so I moved to uh where I currently reside now and I have been for the past you know couple decades and that’s in h Arizona yeah no rain there no rain man I went from one extreme to another I had to hell yeah well how uh when did you move to Arizona again sorry I moved to Arizona in 2000 99 2000 so right before you know again one of our another another one of our big apocalypses that I lived through um at that time we had Y2K so I was there at 99 moved here 99 right before 2 hit yeah are you referencing the E the eclipse that was yesterday everybody thought that the world was going to end or something 100% 100% so I’m you know you asked me how I’m doing I’m glad we’re both still here you know obviously there wasn’t a big uh apocalypse and you know we we avoided it hell yeah dude hell yeah we did hell yeah we did well uh that’s super cool so I want to get to some of the things you you do but uh how has it been in Arizona like was I’m guessing you liked it since you’ve been there for what 24 years now yeah yeah for a minute right as quo we will um I like a you know the the place that I actually reside in is a little suburb of Phoenix called Gilbert Gilbert Scott seller and uh it was actually coincidently was ranked the number two safest city in the US um and it actually it has one of the highest speeding income so um I like my little you know bubble you know I kind of joke I I call myself the mirror over here you know um very suburb very small very family oriented place um but I’m always seeing out out about you know running you know doing my little things smoking shirtless so yeah I love where I live hell yeah hell yeah man that’s that’s awesome that’s that’s cool uh I’m glad that it has worked out for you and then obviously you know you just mentioned smoking as far as all that goes they legalize when did they legalize it do you I’m sure you know yeah no no we uh so we’re about what are we two years three years in I want say 20 yeah 2019 you know so like I want to say pre- pandemic right right as right when it was hitting we were one of the first ones to go legal so it’s been nice um it’s going to be even better when we get uh you know the the siloc cybin you know legal on our side so you know we still have that on a few ballots so you know you guys if you guys see it coming across make sure you be you know pushed for it but uh other than that man I like a our our Market’s a little different than most man our Market’s very very uh Med driven you know posted to some of the markets that you know have a wreck you know driven you know uh base interesting interesting I have a friend that lived in Arizona for a while and I can’t remember where exactly but he he had mentioned Scottdale before so that rang a bell um so maybe he was around there um but yeah he he said that the prices were were not too bad um where he would shop which was cool to hear you know at least yeah you know from a wreck perspective um but yeah so like I I’m curious have you always been because like I uh Tony is the person that or sorry Troy no Tony Tony is the person that uh I I’m getting my names mixed up uh Tony is the person that connected us and he told me when he first told me about you he’s like dude Charles is awesome blah blah blah he’s like check him out too he’s he’s [ __ ] ripped and I checked out your social media I was like godamn so let me just ask this question just to Dive Right In have you always been uh like into fitness or was it like a transformation thing for you um I’m just curious yeah that is you know it it’s a it’s a great question I I want to say uh Fitness and training and working out has always been at the cusp man I love how you’re blaz and I’m about to get mine um but you know it’s uh I I want to say it’s been a lot more intentional a lot more academic you know um you know I got recertified and got Master Certified with Isa um you know I’ve been dabbing into a lot of other uh modalities you know connected to it so um my dad got me started training when I was eight you know at that time we didn’t know what add was ADHD was he just had a kid who was off the walls right he couldn’t keep them you know settled so like you know he just got me training so he got me a weight bench he was super you know kind of ghetto at the time but it serves its purpose um and that’s where I started you know so you know again all a lot of the things that were um you know practical you know or science at the time are now kind of like a pseudo science so it was always thought that if you train or you do any kind of weight training it stin your growth and it you know imped your growth but here I am at 44 I’m 6 foot 185 you know right what what did this stunt you know like so you know I don’t know I mean I guess there was a school of thought that maybe I would have been 6’5 whatever but you know again you know um it was one of of those things that always helped me um and so now you know I I translate that to my cannabis uh you know um you know and it it has definitely helped boost that you know the Mind muscle connection you know some of the things about training that you know sometimes are are tough like sometimes training can be hard you don’t always want to train you know people always say to me how do you find motivation cannabis is a great motivator right you know it’s a great anxiety suppressant but you know it basically allows you to kind of lock in and tune out you know so you know cannabis has been my kind of cheat code you know to unlocking you know the other half of my body’s potential at 40s right yeah yeah that’s interesting to hear now so first of all I got two different directions I could go in here I’m just going to say I remember being told the same thing as a like a younger man like I was like I remember wanting to join the football team and I remember being kind of like intimidated by weit room and I remember some of the adults kind of like making me feel better about it by saying Cole like you you’re so young that if you start working out you were going to stunt your growth so don’t even do it anyway like I remember being told that what you just said you know we all were told that we all were told that for a long time so I had a track coach and my track coach the biggest thing that he was you know he discouraged was any type of weight training or strength training all together like you know I went away from him you know the guy that kind of you know gave me my Bas is my mentor in sprinting and I I put on a lot of size I put on lot of strength all this kind of stuff and the first thing he did he’s like yo you look like trash he’s like you’re too big you’re never going to be able to run and now like that you know things have evolved you know if you have you looked at the way a sprinter looks now like a sprinter they look like a little football player they’re they’re very big lots of dense lots of compacted muscle because we understand that strength or sprinting it’s what do you call a force application you know the more force that you can apply the faster you’re going to be so that means you got to be big you got to be strong oh sorry I was I was muted my apologies another thing you mentioned uh was uh you know kind of the idea that your dad like was like dude this kid’s bouncing off the walls um I I relate to you not I mean actually I do relate to you in ADHD because I like struggle with that as well but one of the things I try to do as as best as I can is just do some sort of workout every day for 30 minutes at least and I find that if I do that if I just exert some energy that you know some days I can I can re like most days I can control my temper but sometimes it gets the better of me and I find that that happens to also be the days usually that I that I haven’t like exerted some energy oh yeah yeah well you know even you know scientifically not anecdote um but there’s a direct correlation with the output and when you exercise to how it boosts serotonin you know I don’t know what you know what your you know um you know condition is or whatever but I know that me you know I’ve always suffered from anxiety depression some form of disease um and the only way that I’ve been able to balance myself out or you know ramp that serotonin back up you know is training right and they’ve done a lot of science behind it like we we are literally like you know the proverbial rat on the wheel right when you see the rat on the wheel the rat on the wheel he’s not doing that because he needs exercise he’s doing that because it boosts serotonin so it makes him feel good so again we’re kind of like that once we kind of keep in that perpetual motion kind of get you know energy going I tell a lot of my clients because everybody wants to feel good and look good but I’m like the first thing about looking good is you gotta feel good first right so I make everybody go out walk get active man get out in the sunlight you know what I mean yeah yeah hell yeah and that’s you know I just want to say that for our listeners it can be as simple as that and you can work your way up to some of the things that you can see Charles doing on his social media but I think wouldn’t you agree that just like a just a starter is just like walk 30 minutes a day like if you’re not working out at all bro it’s the biggest cheat code is one of the biggest things you can do to adding on time to your life is just walking it’s one of the best things ancestrial primordial it’s one of the things that we were designed to do so you you said a best go get on walk yeah yeah well said now um like you so like how did you just see an angle growing up to to be like well like I enjoy working out makes me feel better helps me kind of like for lack of better words control myself right you mentioned the ADHD thing um yes when when did you think like I could make money doing this like you know do it as a living yeah well so the the biggest thing that I start to know or the cor correlation between the training was it wasn’t how much money I was making it was kind of the indirect right it was the fact that by training and by how I looked I I got a lot of attention right I gotten a certain degree of attention or response that then gave me control which then help me to make more money right so it was it was an indirect thing that it did and then there’s this uh validation feedback loop that I tell you know all my clients about you know you start training you start changing and then people are like hey man you know coold man you look really good what are you doing you’re like oh well you know it’s funny yes I’ve been training then what do you want to do want to keep training right because you get that validation right they give you the feedback then it Loops right you want to keep doing it so it’s that validation feedback loop that we keep putting into it with training and and you know for me hon like man you know I haven’t always been as uh as able to like you know relate my feelings or you know communicate the way I express the way I feel this hasn’t always been one of the you know EAS easier things for me so I felt like my training and my body was always my best form of expression right like people would see that and I’m like yo this guy before anything else they say yo he’s committed you know because that’s one thing you could say before anything else to whatever degree you know you know about me you know like at least to some degree this guy takes care of himself self right he he looks like he eats the right thing he trains he cares so then I started to see how people were like hey I want to do that how can I do what you do and so that’s kind of what I’ve been at now because you know everybody thinks like you know they they throw in all these crazy words like motivation and you know genetics and like you they they matter not man they they really don’t like if you ever see my family you’re like yeah how did you do what you’ve done you know and you know no shade to my family they do whatever but you know it’s one of those things that like I I I’ve seen where we could potentially go I’ve seen what could potentially happen and I didn’t want to go down that road you know so a lot of things that I do now or you know like you know I always love to travel I always love to go around um but I never want to be inhibited right like if I want to go uh to the beach in sandal pay or wherever it is I want to be able to run on the beach you know what I mean I don’t want to be in a walker or you know mobile I want to be able to do everything if I want to go out to you know to India I want to be able to walk up and down you I want to do what the people do so for as long as I can do it yeah yeah I think one of the parts that I struggle with currently um is and I say struggle with I just mean I should get better about is eating the right thing that’s something you said this guy eats the right things and I feel like I you know I indulge in too much of what I like love and I I don’t know how to like I need but I also feel like I need to stop looking at it that way like you know what I mean and and redirect that energy to like there are very tasty healthy options you know what I mean right well you know it’s a different thing too man like you know it’s um you know both of them are very hard you know I would say like that me being disciplined and and choosing what you quote unquote a healthier option or whatever um it’s just this you know it is it comes with a degree of difficulty right but you know conversely I want to say that like what I look at it as you know I look at it is my food is literally my fuel you know like when every meal that I eat I’m like yo this is going to do this for me or it’s gonna give me these Cuts like I I don’t look at it as far as far as you know a point of satiation I just look at this is just my fuel source like I’m a machine you know you know you your car doesn’t get excited about the gasoline that you put in it it just goes on it right and that’s way I liking it you know so like if you can get very you know mechanized very method about the way you look at food and a lot of it is you know our relationships with them you know a lot of people you know food has always been a comfort for them you know like a lot of people when things don’t get right you know when things are out of their control food has always been that consistent that constant companion that you can go to and he’s going to give you that Comfort right he’s gonna hug you he’s GNA tell you oh it’s okay you know um yeah and that part of it bro especially you know for us who consuming cannabis bro it kind of is like the the there’s nothing better than having a hard day smoking right and then you know having the the munchies like it kind of goes hand in hand like it it feeds that but you know in the same instance there’s other things that you can do that are going to be rewarding in the long term you know right so but yeah man like for for the longest and I want want to say that I was always so good at sorry about that here give me one second oh it’s all good so you know for me you know um way I grew up everything was fried you know my dad you know it wasn’t like he had a very good understanding about food and and nobody kind of gave him this form of instruction I I had a lot of issues bro I had stomach issues for as long as I can remember some kind of gastrointestinal like for as long as I can remember I’ve always consumed Dairy you know um I want to say 85 if not 90% of African-Americans if not people are lactose intolerant you know as much as people like it there is such a fun thing it is incredibly harmful to human beings right so that’s one of the things that I didn’t know and I consume and exess bro like I love cheese I love cheese I love Dairy you know it would have been a glass of milk it have been cheese on everything oh yeah and I was having lots of inflamation have a lot of like a lot of issues because my body wasn’t able to digest it you know when you’re doing that essentially when people have a lactose tolerance when they can consume it their body has an enzyme that allows them to basically break it down we’re not supposed to be consuming you know cattle you know or you know cow milk we’re supposed to be having you know human milk so again people who can their body has an in en and they can take it in and receive the nutrients right if you don’t your body can’t break it down so that acid all that it’s just spurting it out is your body’s poisoning itself it’s trying to break down something that’s very foreign to its system so you know I didn’t know these things these things weren’t brought to my tension you know like so you know vegan you know paleo diets all these different forms of you know ways to administer you know uh your consumption weren’t available they just weren’t at the time you know so um you know my thing my story about it you know along with the Cannabis has been you know a journey of just understanding um you know I went to doctors you know when I was having my anxiety my depression you know whatever it is I got bunch of pills I got addicted to benzos and I got addied to anti- anxiety pills I was hooked on Xanax and I became an alcoholic I it was a long very vicious cycle and spiral down uh cannabis was my Gateway back it was what gave me control was what gave me everything that I have now so like now I’m I’m there’s so much advocacy I have for you know cannabis along with training you know being you know the gateway to better you know living and understanding yeah man one of the things you said earlier really resonated with me about food and kind of looking at it almost just as a fuel source because what you made me realize and I’m saying this because I hope maybe it’s familiar with other people like sometimes I gravitate to the old meals I had as as like a kid like P you know something as simple as Pizza like I can get a certain type of pizza and it’ll what it’ll do is it brings back memories of like oh yeah this is the pizza I’ve always had I love this pizza you like you know the experience and I don’t know like you just made me realize like I don’t think I was ever conscious of the fact that that’s I’m kind of like R kind of living in the P I don’t mean you know at least for me I’m not trying to say speak for others but for me sometimes I live too much in the past with regard to things like that you know it kind of indulge so that it’ll like comfort me you know what I mean um I think you’re spot on though I think though Cole I think all of us do and I think that it was very very stute you know like uh observation on your part to say yo you know what so funny I remember when I was eating pizza it reminded me of when I was young yeah most can do that and you’re that’s what a lot of us do right you know like hey man you know like you know my my my my lady you know she’s like yeah you know I remember when I was young you know when we had a hard di mom would do this it’s right what she went to she didn’t go do anything mom would do this and this is what it made me feel right yeah it wasn’t even about the taste of it you know we very like the taste is like the is like the literally it’s a sidebar felt right it’s like how it made us feel and the feelings associated with it right so you know almost the takeaway from that is like what if you took that away and just got back that feeling like you know so you know inance you know like when I was young I used to eat pizza you know I remember when I was young it reminds me I used to have that pizza so what’s something else you used to do when you were young so like again my my buddy were one of my clients when he was young he used to just go out walking all the time they because you know they didn’t have a car they didn’t have anything and so that was one of the things we did like we literally parked somewhere random we just started walking he goes yo this is so wild it reminds me when I was young we used to take the bus and he just the smile he out on his face just taking in all the stuff that you know again like a child would be very new you know what I mean it be like just like experiencing over again you know it’s almost as experiential as you know that that pizza that we had or or whatever it was like when you said Pizza bro you got me because one of the biggest things that I remember coming up was in Cali my mom me my brother sister she would get Domino’s Pizza right and she would get us you know cream soda so do you know what I do do you know where on my happy spot do you know what I go to Domino’s cream soda it’s never hit the spot like that first one you know what I mean but it just always takes me back bro so when you said that it almost reminded me of it too because my Le’s like why do you even eat that you didn’t even really like it I’m like you know maybe I don’t but I thought about it it makes me feel good you know so that’s true yeah dude you know it’s weird is like maybe it’s not so weird because it’s a common pairing but my thing is yeah pizza and a Coca-Cola that’s just like you know does it for me mother’s milk to me it’s a spot like it’s F what you just said I didn’t realize it’s about it doesn’t it’s not even really about necessarily how it tastes like I can acknowledge that some of the things that I eat like some of my mom’s old recipes that I’ll prepare it’s not even that it tastes great or as I’m acknowledging has great nutritional value um it’s about that godamn feeling it makes it gives me you know it’s like oh I I can think about like oh I remember the first time my mom made this for me and you know how happy you know like you say I could go through all my own personal anecdotes but that’s so powerful I yeah in a weird way this is therapeutic oh man and it is it’s you know what and you know you ask me what got me into this is exactly this it’s it’s always being able to share and you know being like yo this is what I did you know and and you know again conversely when I was going online it was like I was experiencing other people who were doing things and who were like yo you know what if I did I would just start walking you know there’s a buddy of mine that you know he was going through addiction I’m like how did you do it you know cuz at one point this is like a mentor of mind like this guy was on top of the world he was the uh manager of a bank you know like when he was 21 like I mean he was that guy and then he went from that to sleeping in his car you know what I mean and I’m like how and what he goes you know what I became at at that point in my life I didn’t like me and that was that that was the the thing right and then I had to switch that I had to get into a phase where I love me and that meant you know instead of sleeping sleeping in know self-deprecating Behavior not taking care of myself I would wake up at 5: in the morning go on a run you know shave washed my face there was things that he did to put into himself so that was a lot of what I realized a lot of the behavior and a lot of the things that I was doing it had nothing to do with how I really felt about me and had to De with abuse and other things that I I wasn’t dealing with I wasn’t addressing you know so um yeah man you know when I’m having this and I see you smile and you know you’re able to share you know parallel I’m like bro that that’s food for my soul that’s my soul food bro that’s that’s my chicken soup for my soul you know to be able to share those prls with people bro hell yeah dude hell yeah um so yeah on that note thank you for sitting down with me I just wanted to say that before we moved on any further because as you can tell I’m still processing this and I’m probably even going to watch this conversation back which is something that you know I don’t usually do with my own podcast uh I don’t know you just said a lot a lot of things that have like uh I mean as I told you before we connected you know um I’ve not been the best like mentally I’m I’m much better and that’s why we are connected right now you know um but you know uh yeah these are some of the things that we’re talking about right now that I still struggle with and it’s just really like I say helpful and it gives me something to focus on going forward and and I’m hoping you know not to make this all about myself I’m hoping that anybody listening right now that might be going through a similar you you know half uh might also find some of these things helpful cuz one thing I heard recently that that reminded me that I needed to speak to you was somebody said you know you can’t outrun your diet and I was like God damn it I’m trying to outrun my diet you know yeah no man and it is true you know what you said to me and you know going back to you all these things are very tough you know when you what I want to thank you for is your transparen like the last time we spoke you’re like hey kind of going through a rough point and you were very transparent about it um what I appreciate that is I don’t think as as men and as humans we do that enough like it’s really become kind of part and parcel where we just you know like ignore it or we just deny it we suppress it and it you know it’s it’s an healthy thing right you know so you know it’s for the fact that you know you’ve had your podcast that you’ve allowed you know to you know to have a space for people to talk I’m like man I want to you know to kind of do the same you know I want to also to be able to to to to be able to share with you you know some of the things so I I do I appreciate that with you um but yeah to your point bro I haven’t been the best mentally you know like one of the best things that I do for my health has been exactly what we’re doing now because like bro I’m not always good like I’ve been really not good lately but when I’m putting myself out there and I’m kind of telling it out to the world I hear it right um I also have people who care about me that are out there give me accountability yeah so you know to me you know the importance of you and me holding space for one another and just being there for one another is everything bro it’s everything you know um I’m it’s it’s it’s hard for me because like I wasn’t always there for people who I need to hold space for so you know my my thing now is I’m never not going to not be there you know some form of function you know like what you said was EX ly my line that I’ve kind of exchanged on a lot of different podcasts you know I don’t know if you know who needs to hear this or whatever but somebody you will need to hear this like somebody will be going through a tough time yeah I just got my my you know I went through the shave right so my barber my barber is always the most garious like upbeat dude and he was in a bad Spirit you know he’s just the world’s God to him you know I said to him like big bro head up Crown Crown all King you know like you know what I mean like I you know don’t I don’t want to you know want you to be down like the world is going to get you down but you can’t be down down you know what I mean so with you bro like I get it you know I I feel it I was there and I appreciate you being able to be here like like I said you know I’m probably gonna look back at this and you know appreciate everything you said to me that I’m I’ve been reflecting on so yeah yeah dude well um one of the other things that you mentioned that I just wanted to give you some space to to speak about I don’t know if you’ve ever spoken about this but since you mentioned it like I’ve I’ve got friends that have dealt with this before and um I think it’s just important to acknowledge I’m not necessarily look I mean if you have advice on it definitely feel free to share but you mentioned an addiction to benzos and I think that through all this and through this conversation you know health professionals have tried to offer me medication and I’m likey look I don’t need medication and I’m not saying like if I was sick or something I wouldn’t take it but and like if I was really really mentally struggling like like I was seeing [ __ ] or something it’s like okay I I obviously need like some medication but I’m just like going through a tough time and like I’m just trying to get back on my feet type of thing and it’s like you’d be surprised how much [ __ ] they throw at you and then you read you read the um the side effects and it’s like like even to sample something like an SSRI or something like you you start on it and it might work but if it doesn’t you have to like wean yourself off kind of like I’ve heard benzodiazapines so that you don’t like have [ __ ] shocks to your system and like I don’t know die the thing that they don’t tell you is a lot of these things are initially the the the initial usage for them was they were used as anti-seizure medications right so as much as they were used because what they do is they simulate a part in the cerebral like and it might be the C I’m off please whoever SL are don’t quote me on that but what it does in the brain is it triggers that thing that suppresses that response to have a seizure here’s the thing that they don’t tell you is if you never had seizures right they can induce them too so like here I was like you said shocks full ass seizures bro like when I went off like you know I was having real seizures so what I would tell you is me going off zanx I would never the that whole thing was the worst pain that I’ve ever dealt with like I’ve never yeah yeah like people wonder why I train so hard and why you that and and and you know the detoxing from alcohol there’s nothing that I can overcome like I can literally walk in the fires of hell right because of that and again it’s hard to talk to about it it’s I got a buddy that I talked to I was on a podcast with a you know good friend of mine and we were talking and you know you were talking about pills and consumption and you know I’m not an addict because you know think about it how do you call yourself an addict with something that your doctor gives you right how do you call yourself an addict how does society even anecdotally even call themselves addict right because everybody’s doing it right and that’s when I’m like you know again I’m not the most popular guy but I’m like yo I’ll be the the the the the Ebola guy I’ll be the monkey just say look look listen we all took the poison you know we all got really sick and it’s a okay so we’ll just briefly acknowledge that today is a new day it’s April 11th Charles thank you for sitting back down with me we’re completing our conversation uh we were just talking about uh you had said how can you be addicted to something that a doctor gives you and you were talking about you know how we all started using maybe we went towards medication and then we got sick worse off than we were before um you know and what I where I was going with that is it starts a lot of the self- delusion you know when you get something that is given to your by your doctor you have you’re under the guys that there’s no way possible that this can ever harm me you know so um you know at whatever amount you consume you still never ever look at it as though it’s an addiction you know that’s why there’s such a you know dissonance you know when you know you’re talking to the general populace about you know the opio opioid crisis and the amount of addiction you know that we have every day that you know the majority of people that consume these drugs are are addicted you know so yeah you know it is just one of those things that you know to talk about in the space or even say Hey you know I got Addicted by something my doctor was given me it’s just something that you know it’s not you know relatable it’s something that you know we we tend to just ignore you know or cast out you know um so why you know and I said that on this last podcast because one of the things that he had talked about and one of the things that I was vocalizing to you you know you said you know you’ve had some struggles and I you know was very vocal in mind is that any of this this thing that we’re going through you know whether it be you know the origin of my addiction or the one that I was on the podcast his addiction or whatever it is you know a lot of it streams from you know whether it be trauma or things that happen to us that you know we’re having a hard time combating or handling um for whatever that is you know and you know the way that society’s been now is that it’s not Society acceptable to to kind of talk about some of these issues to talk about struggling you know having issue you know being in Need You Know needing help you know um and the reality is that that I’ve now been facing the more and more I do these is that everybody is in the same exact situation you know I I guess we can find Solace and there’s nobody that I talk to that’s not having a struggle right now there’s nobody I talk to that internally in in some way or form isn’t really struggling with something you know um and I said to you before one of the things that had happened to me you know I’ve had ADHD um depression anxiety I’ve been riddled with some form of disease since I remember as they’re always feeding us things right uh you know and now the reality of it is is that you know we’re all collectively kind of in this situation we’re all you know realizing yo this is what we’re all kind of faced with right now after realization like man we went through a really toxic situation consuming all these drugs getting addicted and now we’re kind of in this Awakening you know this General sense of Awakening and we’re all kind of talking about it and and I think that’s the collective Consciousness we’re all getting it into the air so you know um there’s nothing nothing wrong with it one of my guys was telling me how you know part of his sobriety road is was Road recovery he’s like I was doing really well man and then I you know I relapsed you know and I’m like you know what that’s okay too you know because that in itself is part of the The Human Condition you know we get so consumed with you know thinking that failure is final and it’s just not you know it’s just not you know um so yeah no that’s the biggest thing that I’d say that uh I have really really loved with in this journey of plant medicine and implant plan science is just really connecting with myself connecting with the things that are are important and uh you know you know the dissolution of things that really don’t matter you know my ego who I am black white you know all the [ __ ] that we just get so stuck in our head like you know I was a model for a long time bro so you know what I can say that most people don’t deal with is I I I was used to society you know looking at me and from RIP just saying yeah you’re just you’re not it you know can you imagine you know going to castings or every day is somebody looking at you like yeah you’re not it you’re not good looking you’re not that you know you’re not and that was what it was it was based wholly on my appearance goal you know so yeah sorry about that tangent but that was a lot of things the fing that I couldn’t uh put in the last little tidbit yeah no no need for apologies man and there’s so many different ways I could go with that but you know um let me try to like approach it you just sparked a lot of thoughts for me one of the things that I just wanted to like say again that you said earlier that I do think is important and and it’s the reason I was so excited to continue this conversation with you is I think it is good for us both to talk about our struggles because I don’t want to be too cliche here but social media you know you always see the highlight real and I’ve talked to people about my mental struggles and some people are surprised they’re like Cole but you you know I’m not even going to say what what they’ve said about me but I’ll just say like what I thought about you when I looked up at your social media I was like man this guy’s in good [ __ ] health bet you he’s just [ __ ] like you know like because I’m seeing you know what you want to share in the world and again I’m not trying to be too cliche about it but I do think it’s good for us to talk about the fact that we do have struggles and for you to acknowledge that basically everybody you talk and everybody I talk to um like you say there is some soless in knowing that you’re not alone and and maybe you know uh your situation is somewhat unique you aren’t alone in in facing you know trials and tribulations and I I just wanted to dwell on that for a moment you know so man and I love the way you worded it you worded it perfectly you know I may not be uh you know I’m not alone my situation may be unique but I I am not you know and it really is and I think that right now especially right now with all the craziness going on I can’t say it for any other time in you know in history but I can say like right now we’re all universally Tethered on you know just a lot of the craziness that’s going on in the world you know what I mean um and so you know with that being said and with the fact that you know you have so many things going on people passing you know covid whatever that craziness is um I really am that guy who’s been you know enjoying and embracing every day you know what I mean like you know making every day my masterpiece for whatever that looks like you know hell yeah hell yeah well um just really quick another thing that I think you know just on the topic of just like prescription drugs and you know that that relationship with the doctor in general is that we have this idea society and this is a little bit of a tangent but like I think you’re going to see how I related this here because I do think it’s an important conversation to have it’s not so much about mental health it’s more of like a societal comment we have this idea of what intoxication is right and so like with you know I could say drunk and you you’ve got a cartoon playing of somebody drunk right now or I could say hi and you you can mental image of somebody sitting in front of a couch you or sitting on a couch watching TV eating snacks or something I don’t know again cliche uh but it gets a little bit nuanced when you consider these other forms of intoxication I mean I always say coffee you know right like I can drink too much coffee easily and then it’s just as bad as if I smoke too much weed I I can’t focus I you know um but it’s not that I couldn’t drive a car it’s not that I couldn’t you know balance or whatever else but I am intoxicated and so I guess I don’t you know I obviously can’t make the direct connection but some of these drugs these ssris Xanax and everything else I’ve talked I’ve heard of people talking about the fog they get into and it’s interesting there’s no conversation about intoxicated driving when it comes to those drugs right right 100% And you know there’s so much science and not anecdote with what happens when you drive under the influence of those you know so you know not only SSR but the anti- EXO anti- psychotics um and some of the benzos you can have blackouts you know so they Advocate you know there’s different types one of the first accidents I got into was at an argument you know and again why we take our Xanax or whatever is just because we don’t want to deal with what’s going on I took it I got in my car and I got into a wreck because I passed out behind the wheel you know I hadn’t eaten you know and anything like that so you know it is it’s it’s it’s still that conversation that you know the elephant in the room we don’t want to have it you know nobody wants to have that because so many of the people that like should be having that discussion are the most addicted you know like I said you know the other day man some of the biggest Lies We Tell are the ones we tell ourselves no I’m not an adct no man that’s cool I can stop whenever I want to you know what I mean the thing that is is the challenge that I have and the disconnect with cannabis is that we we talked about this you know but you know you have a part of your body that helps you upregulate you have ECS system that helps you up regulate and consume it you know they’ve found the relation to the ECS system and Pain Management um so it’s not anecdote it’s like you actually have something whereas you don’t have something that helps you to consume alcohol or the poisons you know what you liver right you do too much that’s liver toxic and you did too much and you just die so whenever again you know people are making the correlation they’re saying cannabis and alcohol are they’re the same it’s not the same you know it’s also too you know I get upset and there was a post the other day and there’s been a f few posts that people are like well you know don’t consume and train don’t do any of these things and it’s still you know a very broken pseudo science that doesn’t understand the the importance of doing the doing both of them how they’re interwoven opposed to alcohol which you know again there’s detriment so you know it is man I I think it’s going to be you know um and it was the generation before the reer manness all those idiots um I think this new generation your generation and and the next one the successive ones are starting to Pioneer the understanding right you know the the science the you know the education pieces about you know really what this is doing you know and I hope that you know the next thing is I hope that the next new Norm the next new cool is people out literally consuming and you know just like training and consuming you know there’s a couple brands that I’m closely connected with but one of the brands that I really like is uh you know uh Ric Flair’s brand so he has a drink right but his drink has a uh what is it the agents it’s so Pyon based so it’s got adaptogens mushrooms and all that so instead of having caffeine which is the usual thing that you know when you’re training you do but it just triggers and just trashes your CNS system they have the adapted gens which is what the Spartans used to use which you know heightens your focus cognition and it doesn’t you know trash the CNS system and have you you know uh um crash at the end of it so you know we’re starting to you know filter in you know more of the plants you know there’s a lot of things that they’re doing now with CBD and uh pre-workout supplements so all that stuff man I’m all about yeah I heard that drink also allows like your uh voice muscles to get to like a falsetto like a w ah I see I didn’t drink it I didn’t drink it yeah but I’m sorry that was a stupid joke um uh no thank you for like getting into that because like I said I know it was a little bit of a tangent we’ve been talking about mental health and stuff but I just wanted to mention that because some people will say you know well I’m not intoxicated okay it’s kind of like how can I get addicted to something that my doctor gives you well I’m not how could I get [ __ ] up off of something my doctor gave me yes y yeah yeah so yeah well um Charles I just uh you know we talked about a lot of different things today um in this episode rather uh and you know I wanted to thank you for being willing to be you know open about some of the issues you faced and also just e easy to speak easy to speak to you know and I do have a question that was inspired by our first half of the show um if we can quickly return to dietary uh topics before we close out I’m a simple man right I I could eat pizza every day as we sort of touched on and I think anybody could right but more to my point I’m looking for something that and look I I know you can go in many different directions in this so feel free to get creative but I’m just looking for something that’s simple repetitive and preferably tasty that that I could eat and again I I said I started this with a I’m a simple man because I I really could eat just about the same thing every day I mean I try to mix it up so that I don’t get bored of a food but like what are some starter just some like healthy foods cuz like I was thinking of starting with like you know steak and chicken stuff like that just like meats that are don’t have carbs you know mixing in some veggies and stuff but like talk to me what do you how can I start no man you know really really simply like uh you know I try to live like a shark right you know sharks as far as what they do they eat a lot of fats and proteins but even more to simplify it is think about ancestral like think about going back to primordial or Paleolithic man what he would consume right so he’s going to be be the archetype for what we should do right now we’ve gotten away from that so you know again you know you’re going to want to you know eat proteins so you know people discourage or they Advocate or they discourage meat and vegan whatever but there’s never been any point in history documented or notable which where man has sustained himself without you know without you know protein or meat sustenance so steak absolutely you know so get in your proteins uh movement is life bro so like you the biggest thing with all these things is you know you can do you could there’s a guy that I see he eats 4,000 calories a day but when he does it you know he does it towards the end of the day he always consumes his calories at one point he intermittent fast he only has one meal but the thing about consumption is when you look at it what is your daily consumption your caloric consumption a lot of people my clients they all overeat you know so what I always Advocate is get a macro counter uh there’s uh you know my FIT pal there’s a bunch of and if you track it’ll tell you what you should eat you know like I think 2,000 calories round about is where the average person should be sustain or maintain anything lower than that that helps you or that puts you at a deficit you know once we start going into really nuancing some of the things it tweaks the body but just that General protocol bro you’ll be okay you know stay with your your chickens your your your high Meats your proteins uh minimize your Dairy um and your sugars the other thing that I tell you know anybody and this is always like if you can’t spell it you know very I I use real food ingredients when you look at any of your ping when anybody any of my clients or they’re going grow shopping they’ll tell me what they bought I said great grab it for me read the back of it if it’s not real food that’s in those items like you know eggs water whatever milk parcy hydrogenate n you don’t buy it right the first five ingredients are listed in order of when how they occur right so whenever you’re looking at you know box of you know whether it be juice or whatever those first five ingredients are going to be most frequently or the most highest occurrence be uh ingredients in there so if you’re eating or you’re drinking tomato juice and Juice Tomatoes isn’t the first item that’s concern right you know if you’re eating mashed potatoes and there’s 40 ingredients of mashed potatoes right bro I’ve been around for 44 years I’ve always known mashed potatoes would be potatoes right you know milk whatever and mash that’s it they should yeah exactly so you know you got to think about that your body knows how to consume real food items it doesn’t understand the rest you know so when you’re eating the Skittles which taste so good with the partially hydrogenated the red four red five body doesn’t know all that you know I mean your body’s gonna have to sort it’s gonna have to you know part different things and throw away half of that you know that you’re not you know that it’s not going to use so real food items think like a shark you know uh proteins and fats and uh movement man like the simplest thing you can do for life and Longevity is just walk so I try to have everybody all my clients just for this is not just for the aesthetic purposes this is longevity and feeling good about yourself uh but I try to make sure they do 10 to 15,000 steps a day hell yeah and on your phone or any of your smart devices you’ll have a pedometer that should tell you but any more than that like you start getting into a weight G sorry fat loss and and muscle building but uh that’s another conversation but yeah man it’s not that you know it’s not as as hard as people you know make it out to be uh Min moono he’s a bad example to use but he he basically kind of sums up what I’m telling you about as far as just consumption in general there’s a guy who had a bunch of weight he became a spokesperson for a brand but his name was Jared Jared for Subway many moons ago was this big fat dude that decided that he wanted to lose weight and he was just going to eat one thing and he just lived by the you know by the Subway menu he literally would have three Subs a day which you know people like no that’s crazy how can he do with that with bread doesn’t matter he was still able to keep it within his chloric you know his count because it was three well portion subed that’s it you know what I mean so yeah you want to do pizza you could you know that guy shows that you know you could you know but uh I don’t know how good you feel but you could hypothetically you could do that you know you know what’s funny is I’ve been like weaning myself off of H like it’s not like I eat pizza every day but whenever I do eat pizza I go all out so now when I do eat pizza I’ve been limiting myself to like two to three slices you know instead of going like four or five you know I feel it man I my thing my vice Cole is I love mod and who who has one slice of a MOD Pizza you know yeah I just tried it for the first time when I traveled to DC amazing so yo tell me how much of a cheat coat is that so you know you pay what eight 10 bucks you get as many ingredients as you want you know whatever you want that’s it yo I’m in pick it the way I want anytime I never get disappointed because it’s exactly what I want so no I’m smashing those like but you know again I’m resigning that to once a day versus every day like I used to in my EV you know that’s the other thing that happens once you get above a certain age man you know things don’t work the way they used to you know so you have to be very you know specific about what you do there’s things that I used to go do man slam Donuts couple pizzas and do it all over again I can’t I can I’ll suffer so yeah it’s funny there’s like a like you say there’s a point in time where Mom and Dad aren’t telling you you can’t have candy in the morning anymore and it’s like yeah yo I’m gonna you know what I can eat a whole ass cake if I want to yeah exactly go literally to the store and have a whole ass cake nobody’s gonna say anything else bro see that’s the cheat code that’s the biggest thing about being an adult when we all get here all in this grownup space is that we could all do really whatever you want like who’s to stop you you know but then there’s a few of us who realize yo I I should be having the cake every day as cool as it is I’m probably not going to benefit from that yeah and I’m just curious maybe to close this is an interesting conversation uh and then we can definitely wrap but to your point that you just made I know I might lose you here and I might even lose some of my listeners but to your point there’s a lot of things people can choose to do but it’s it’s adults that you know are ultimately bound with that decision right so I could choose to go parachuting right now I choose to do some crazy [ __ ] right now but strangely enough and this is where I might lose you I’m not allowed to like buy like pure heroin or and I’m not saying I want to I’m just saying that like this is the land of the free and I find it interesting that like still the War on Drugs involves criminalization and I know some people might point to Oregon and say that was a failure I you know I don’t know I I I definitely saw some bad things going on there for sure um but I still don’t think that criminalization is the answer what say you where do you stand on the war on drugs and I’m talking all drugs just not just canis you I’m a psychonaut man so I’m a little weird you know like you when I saw that they you know that that LSD is legalized and that you know what Oregon did I’m like you know it’s rough I don’t know how I feel about herone but you know what I do know in this Human Condition we’re all living it and who’s to say what you can and cannot do you know worked for you you know like yeah that’s where it’s kind of weird you know that’s where it’s very weird for a long time I was told that if you take LSD you’ll take one bad trip and you’ll lose your [ __ ] and now I’m finding out everything to the contrary that like if I take LSD it can make me like a super smart dudes you know um right so you know neurop Pathways neuro connections that it helps you do uh you know same thing now keter Meine some of these things that I again I was always historically known that like you don’t take those those are the things the drug take and now I’m finding out no that’s the thing that smart people take everybody’s taking they’re actually smart drugs so it’s a weird thing man it’s very very weird thing you know like you know again being an African-American I come from reer Madness which reer Madness was you know where a bunch of dudes thought that you know a bunch of brothers were going to go out smoke weed and Chase a bunch of girls you know so it’s just craziness to disconnect particularly white women uh that’s what we were concerned about right right right and full disclosure you know Brothers smoke weed and we like all women so nobody’s safe nobody we don’t discriminate I know everybody’s listening um but just to take it a step back for the folks that might still you know I hope that we didn’t lose anybody there but you know what one thing I did hear and I don’t think I would ever do heroin unless like I broke my [ __ ] leg and I needed like some heroin to like like oh give me some heroin so I could stop panicking something like that but like uh one thing somebody told me about was the iron I think it’s called the iron clad law of prohibition I’m going to Google it really quick just to make sure I’m talking about it right but it’s this idea that all of these products are just they’re just products of prohibition so in other words the iron law of prohibition um it’s the iron law of prohibition is the idea that the more intense the law enforcement is the more the more potent the drugs will become so let me just give a few examples cocaine you know in in Colombia Peru wherever they chew on cocoa leaves they just chew on cocoa leaves and make Coco tea and the leaves are really bulky and it’s not that big of a deal uh but if you want to import a lot of that product into the United States that’s hard because it’s it’s a bunch of leafy product so what do you do you make it into powder and you [ __ ] brick it up into little you know this is the iron law of prohibition so similarly with Heroin I don’t know that I would want to do heroin but maybe I mean there is ritualistic use of smoking opium like you know like the you know so like maybe like I’m not saying that I would do it all the time but it just seems like organic don’t panic in a lot of a lot of cases you know um well that’s crazy you know what see you just blew my mind with that one bro like so you know I I thought about what we have out now that’s in wi spread like uh what is it a finel yeah exactly and a lot of these are derived because of what’s on the you know the market you know like that’s crazy I really didn’t place the correlation and I would even say like things like cannabis concentrate are an example of this you know sometimes I’ve had people that are against cannabis legalization on my show and they’ll say oh you know when you Legalize It they come out with this this High potency because they’re trying to addict their custom no dude you haven’t been paying attention dabs and hash have existed forever people have always been trying to concentrate this stuff right right so like you know I’m not saying that some companies don’t you know try to make products more enjoyable or whatever or more addicting like they say but I’m just saying that these products I would even say like dab pins specifically dab pens and dabs they’re products of prohibition and the reason is personally in a state that has been in prohibition for quite a while now you know um I used to use dab pins a lot because they don’t smell it’s this idea that because the laws are more intense I I’ve gotten this more potent version of the drug that doesn’t smell is bad it’s just crazy because it like all feet it’s like a cycle that we’re just well you know what they say what is it um necessity is the creator of invention yes Bingo that’s it right we’re always going to need our fix so what what you’re telling me is you make it hard for me I’m going to get resourceful I’m gonna get cleaner I’m gonna get stronger I I you know it is man it it really it’s that La of invention and I man now you got me off on another one about just now why we’re doing this and some of the things like that’s awesome that is that’s so crazy I really did not even look that deep into that to see the correlation but it is and it’s directly pule yeah that’s great bro well um Charles I I doubt this is the last time we’ll chat on the podcast but before you go uh did you want to say anything that you thought about last time that or that just that we hadn’t touched on that specifically you wanted to talk about before we go no man I just want to tell you bro I love everything that you’re doing I want you to continue to do this uh continue to be organic and transparent like you have your humility speaks bro it’s one of the reasons why I couldn’t wait to do this um Tony who’s a mutual friend of ours both You Know spoken fairly highly of you so you know how it is man like uh Laws of Attraction so no I want to stay tether bro and uh you know please this will not be the first whatever you need and and ditto I’mma hit you up hell yeah hell yeah yeah I was about to say if I don’t hear from you you’ll definitely hear from me uh this won’t be the last time we speak so um folks I just want to say I hope you found as much value in this conversation as I did and if you’re out there and having you know a tough time I hope that some of the things we talked about were helpful and uh definitely check out the podcast description once again all of uh Charles’s socials will be in there so if you’re looking to get a connection uh there you go and I just want to say thank you if you’ve listen this far um we’ll see you on the next episode of the Cole memo You all take care