It’s 3 pm, you’re feeling sluggish and worn down, and you reach for the lukewarm coffee still sitting in the pot from this morning. This is your fifth one today. But this is normal for you; it’s just part of getting older; it’s fine.
I’m going to be frank with you. It’s not fine. You’ve just learned how to cope with terrible energy levels and a body that was trained to find any way to keep going. If you’re like the majority of veterans, you’re overweight, underslept and managing pain.
I’ve spent over seven years working one-on-one with veterans from across the planet and the same issues keep coming back up; chronic pain, weight gain and poor energy.
Let me propose a radical idea. This isn’t a discipline, motivation or mental health problem; it’s a biological one. Read to the end for your one tangible action you can do this week.
You went to the doctor. They said they think you might be depressed and prescribed you powerful psychotropic medication and referred you to a therapist, or they put you on a PDE5 inhibitor for ED or a beta blocker for high blood pressure. But at no point did they do a blood test or ask you how well you’re sleeping, right?
They didn’t do a heavy metal panel, a hormone profile, or have you shit in a cup and test for parasites, yet they pumped you full of pills and sent you on your way. They have no idea what’s actually wrong with you because they NEVER CHECKED.
You may feel like you’re broken. Defeated. Maybe you’re realizing that your glory days are over and now it’s just time to manage the decline.
That’s bullshit.
You’re not broken; you’re under-recovered.
Under-recovered is fixable; broken is a story.
Your energy doesn’t magically appear from eating food. It requires a well-functioning metabolism and well-functioning mitochondria to produce that energy as ATP.
Mitochondria are the “energy factories” of the cell. There are trillions of them working their ass off every day to make sure you have enough ATP to make your heart beat, your brain think, and your mouth move.
I’ve come up with 3 main sources of mitochondrial disruption that reduce your ATP production, that are unique to veterans - I call them the Deadly 3.
Toxic exposure — burn pits, fuels, solvents, water (~100% deployed carry a PACT Act presumption).
mTBI — blasts, breaching, the bell-ringers (1 in 5 deployed, ~19.5% probable TBI).
Parasites & gut dysfunction — in-theatre food/water plus years of broken sleep (~90% estimate).
Three different problems, one shared target — which is why fixing them one at a time never worked. And you didn’t have to deploy to carry all three.
"It is not daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential."
- Bruce Lee
Imagine you’re a smartphone for a moment. What happens when 25 apps are running in the background? The phone is slow, and you're wondering why OnlyFans isn’t loading quickly. Just like a smartphone, your metabolism can only work so hard before all the “background apps” that are running start slowing it down. That’s the Deadly 3; they slow your entire system down because your metabolism has to deal with them, stealing energy resources from thinking and doing a 5km run.
Reading and then not taking action is not in line with the Hard to Kill philosophy. So I’m going to make your next step super simple. Copy this template down, fill in the blanks and have the conversation with your healthcare provider today.
I have [symptoms]. I had [exposure]. I'd like a [specific test name].
That’s step one. The full eight-test panel and how to get it covered, I walk through live during my FREE WORKSHOP - WHY YOU’RE ALWAYS TIRED.
This has been fixable the whole time, just nobody took the time with you to look “under the hood”. This is where you gain control back of your health and truly recover. By the end of it, you may only be sipping one delicious espresso per day before you go run your morning 5k.
The workshop: Why You're Always Tired. 90 minutes, live on Google Meet, Thursday 7pm ET. You'll leave with your goals on paper, a signed 30-day plan, and one tool you run tonight. Bring a pen and one sheet of paper. → Register here: [WORKSHOP REGISTRATION LINK]
Train Hard, Fight Easy
Dave
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