7grizzly

I haven't read many books on healthy lifestyles for the past decade, thinking I

was pretty good. I turned a health nut overnight at 40 and in the following

years perused Michael Pollan, Christopher McDougal, Pavel Tsatsouline, John

Douillard, and many others. They fueled my crusade on remolding the body. I have

run marathons in Xero sandals, made the "Simple" goal in kettlebell lifting, and

trained Brazillian jiu-jitsu. These days, I keep learning from people in BJJ

gyms, martial artists whose health is their bread and butter. Since last year,

I've started a 2-hr evening stretch routine and been taking vitamin D3 daily.

 

2025 year end, I saw the Michael Easter book topping a hot reading list. The

title "The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy,

Healthy Self" said a lot and maybe it was time to see what's new, I thought

and joined the queue of borrowers at the library.

 

Easter strings a broad range of subjects with the main story line of his 35-day

Alaska hunting trip. After introducing comfort creep, the book takes the reader

into a cornucopia of concepts and ideas including misogy, the loneliness

epidemic vs. solitude, Fogg's behavior model, stress and nature as an organic

Xanax, Kashey's wisdom of simply tracking calorie-intake for weight loss,

skipping breakfast to induce autophagy, the benefits of negative experiences,

Bhutanese Buddhism's emphasis on death, avidya, the American checklist, mitakpa

(impermanence), Noakes's discovery of the central governor, farm-boy strength

vs. gym strength, Liberman's new thought that humans are born to carry, chair-

sitting vs squating, back pain (80% of all Americans) and the opioid crisis,

exercise vs. anti-depressants, micororganisms and scorch-earth antibiotics, brown

fat, and temperature training. Before the whirlwind settled, we are treated to

Iceland's history as evidence that hardship improves the race's DNA.

 

When asked if she saw any changes, Easter's wife said: "Since you've got back

you're almost impossible to rattle. Nothing seems to bother you now." The author

attributes this equanimity to his pilgrimage to Alaska.

 

Smoking has become a yardstick for measuring bad habits. Loneliness is compared to

half a pack of cigarettes a day (although solitude is a totally different thing)

and if smoking takes 10 years away from a person's life, being unfit takes 23.

Sitting, I heard, is the new smoking. But smoking is not a recent practice. Nobody

seemed interested, however, in finding out the differences between modern

commercial cigarettes and the tobacco before industrialization, say that of the

Native Americans.

 

I can relate to so many points and indeed am aware of many studies and

scientists Easter cited. The book felt like an update on my reading 10 years

ago, especially those on running, strength-training, and diet.

 

I was sold on rucking, an essential military training to build the "tactical

chassis," everything between the shoulders and knees: hamstrings, quads, hips,

abs, obliques, back, etc. It works this chassis as an integrated system,

combines strength and cardio, and creates the "super medium" body type of the

Special Forces. (Easter pointed out it's light on the knee and especially good

for women.)