Some Words About Joe Garma

(by his very own self)

 

Joe Garma, Hawaii Ice Creamery

The first thing I want to say is not about me, but you. I’m grateful you’re here. Without readers, this site is pointless, and what I have to share wouldn’t be shared at all, but bounce around aimlessly in an echo chamber.

I like myself well enough, but am not interested in hearing my own words rebound back to me ad nauseum.

If you find yourself enjoying what’s on this site, and actually try out some of the things suggested to make yourself biologically younger, more vital and stronger – then you and I are on the same page.

You might be younger, older, richer, poorer, know more or less than me… but what will connect us is our desire to improve ourselves, and our willingness to put what we learn into action.

Now, since you came to this “About Joe” page, a bit about me… And the first thing I want to say is:

I love the word “autodidactic”.

I love it because the term is often applied to someone smart. Someone who has persevered. Then, after many long nights, won the prize… “I’m an expert”, dontcha know?

Well, just to be clear — I’m not an expert. You know the definition of an expert?

“The person who has read one more book than you.”

So, perhaps I’ve read more about the biology of aging than most.  But more importantly, I’m someone who over the course of thirty-plus years has been diligently applying himself to learning about health matters.

I have degrees in economics. But in matters of hormone optimization, resistance training, nutrition, detoxification and the like, I’m largely self-taught. So, despite my attraction to the word, “autodidactic” remains a bit lofty to describe me at the moment. Some day maybe.

What I know about meditation, equanimity, functional fitness and yoga has been formed in good measure through the teachings of others:

  • High school years pouring over Arnold Schwarzenegger muscle magazines. (Thank you Arnold.)
  • A deep dive into nutrition during my college years. (Thanks Nathan.)
  • Three years of steady yoga teachings before many on my own. (Thank you Jennifer.)
  • A dozen years of meditation instruction before many on my own. (Thank you Silva Method and JZ.)
  • Two consecutive years of daily practice with The Course In Miracles, now – hopefully – integrated within me; maybe. (Thank you to whomever wrote The Course in Miracles.)

Yes, there was much teaching, but like I’m fond of saying,

information isn’t knowledge.

To truly know something, you must put information into practice. You bust out of pontificated theory by putting what you learn into practice. Then is becomes your knowledge.

As I write this, I’m two clicks from 60 and yet have physical attributes of a man many years younger.

How?
Why?
What the heck!

Answering these questions is the reason GarmaOnHealth exists. I’m compelled to share with you how I’ve overcome many health obstacles, and still am able to be biologically younger than the great majority of my peers.

One more thing.  I have a small but wonderfully supportive family.  Through thick and thin.

The Joe Garma Family

 

So, what are your “health obstacles”?

Well, there are the injuries and the genetics. My genes are predisposed for insulin de-sensitivity (type 2 diabetes), hypothyroidism (low functioning thyroid), a bit of scoliosis (twisted spine). I have slightly misaligned hip joints.

On the injury front, I hemorrhaged two lower disks in my spine in my early twenties, severed my Achilles tendon in my early thirties, cracked my pelvis in my late forties, suffered blunt force trauma to a hip joint a year later, and adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder) in my early fifties.

The silver lining is that each of these things gave me the incentive to learn what I needed to fix each and every mishap. In that silver lining was the understanding that,

Genetics loads the gun. Behavior pulls the trigger.

That’s a pithy way of saying that genetic traits do not necessarily have to be expressed in your phenotype (the expression of a gene in an observable way).

There’s a whole segment of biological science built around this truth called “epigenetics”. Say you and I have the genetic propensity for type 2 diabetes. If we adopt the right behaviors, epigentics informs us that we have a chance of keeping these genes expressionless.

Much of what I do on this site is to demonstrate how to make epigentics work in your favor. That’s the physical part. As with most of us, I also grappled with the run-of-the-mill emotional/mental/spiritual crises.

What good is life without some crisis? As Rumi said:

“You must have shadow and light, both”

Or something to that effect. Without the friction, life may be a mind-numbing slide to unexamined oblivion. I keep readers who subscribe to my weekly newsletter and social media forums up to date about what I’m personally working on or trying to fix. Just type in your email and click the ” asdfasf” button, and you’re an insider, pronto.

 

Do you have something against doctors?

Not the ones who seek to understand the underlying cause of a disease or health issue, as opposed to those who seek to mask the symptoms with drugs.

My father had adult-onset diabetes (type 2). He was content to get insulin prescribed by his doctor and inject it daily. Had no interest in trying to control his diabetes with diet and exercise. This is not how I roll.

The readers who will most benefit from this website will experiment with some of the potential solutions to their issues here presented. Yes, try to get the endorsement of your doctor, but also stimulate a desire for careful experimentation.

 

What are you trying to accomplish here?

My objective is to live a long and strong life full of vitality. Each day, I seek to gain more information about how to do this… but nothing happens until I apply the information, thereby making it my knowledge gained through experience.

I think I’m making some good progress. I test biologically younger than I am chronologically, and am more flexible and stronger than the average Joe.

I’ve discovered that this live long/strong practice needs to be bolstered by righteous (right-use-of) thinking, detoxification, nutrition and exercise. I call them the “Four Pillars” of “The Ageproof Method”, which are Mindset, Reset, Fuel and Move.

Right now I’m working on a crash course which will be called The Ageproof Method, or something like that. If you’re on the List prior to release, you’ll get it FREE.

What more could you possibly ask for?  Get on the LIST… email address and a tiny click of the button…

{You’ll also receive a Newsletter on Sundays.}

 

Why should I listen to you?

Who you should “listen to” is yourself, in effect, as you apply the information gained here.

I curate information that I deem could be helpful. If it applies to me, I try it out. And I report the results in all the typical places — on this site, in my Newsletter, on the social forums, shouting from the highest rooftops, etc.

For 40 years I’ve been doing resistance training, 35 years experimenting with diet/nutrition, 30 years meditation, 20 years of detoxification, 20 years yoga, and 20 years of active nutracetuical supplementation.

A lot of years, yes, and maybe I’ve been doing something consistently wrong all that time. Could be. There’s been much done right, too. That is clearly evident.

I write about what the experts say. I write about what I’m doing and what I’ve done. If you resonate with it, you might cautiously try my approach, or what I report that others have successfully done. But always remember that no two people are biologically identical – even identical twins can respond differently to various physical, nutritional and hormonal protocols.

Listen to yourself.

 

Do you have any daily rituals?

Yes, and I think it’s very important for people to have daily rituals. These attune you to what you want to accomplish and experience in life. Although I have various habits that are scheduled, such as exercise, the rituals are different.

Firstly, they’re all done in the morning right after I awaken. Secondly, their intent is not so much to get something done, but to reinforce a certain consciousness or intention.

These are my five morning rituals:

  1. Before I get out of bed, I close my eyes and both visualize and recite a series of mantras, each addressing a particular thing or emotion I wish to experience in life. This is followed by what I intend to accomplish that day.
  2. As my feet touch the floor, my butt still in bed, I pause and silently say, “Today will be perfect.” (Thank you BJ Fogg for this idea.)
  3. I paddle to the kitchen, squeeze a lemon in a cup of hot water, gaze at Angel Island outside my window, and with each sip silently state something for which I’m grateful. (Thank you Mark Divine for this idea.)
  4. Continuing on to the living room, I do a series of mobility exercise that serve to wake me up, and get blood flowing into my joints. (Thank you Mike Mahler for inspiring me to make this a ritual.)
  5. My final ritual is to focus on an index card upon which I’ve written several goals of mine, as I want to begin the day reaffirming them.

I strongly urge you to develop your own set of daily rituals. Make them be the things or feelings or equanimity that you wish to experience on a daily basis. Schedule them when you have the greatest chance of doing them.

 

What did you do before you became a test dummy for GarmaOnHealth?

After graduate school, I became a Financial Analyst for a gas and electric utility company. After four years I wanted another job. I was lucky enough to meet a man who was willing to take a chance with me. He ran a division of a large investment bank. He hired me to run around the country and raise money for private equity real estate deals. Exhausting but very rewarding.

I then joined three other fellas and started a company that structured and sold mortgage derivatives in the days before they became toxic. Nonetheless, I nearly lost my shirt.

Before we were completely naked, we closed that business and I moved from California to Washington State, and developed a five-acre parcel with my mother and sister. Grandma made sure we all feasted at dinner. We built four homes that for many years were off the grid. We powered everything with solar, a huge battery bank and a diesel generator. When the sun shined, water was pumped from a well up a hill and into an underground tank. Turn on the faucet and you get gravity-pressurized water for the orchard, gardens and households.

After two years of homesteading, I returned to California and helped a friend with his software start-up. We built it up with the help of some smart people and venture capital, and sold it after five years.

I began consulting, primarily with Internet companies. This was during the Internet boom from 1999 to about 2001 I worked for stock shares instead of consulting fees for three years. Current value of that stock: $0.

Eventually, I joined Shepard Associates (now DanceCard Ventures), where I remain, and from time to time help clients by telling them what I’d do if I were in their shoes. Sometimes they listen.

 

What are you passionate about?

I want a world where we humans live sustainably. Think about it for a moment. We have these relationships to self, to others, to work, to the earth. If we consciously act to sustain these relationships, each will be renewed as needed, and last — be sustained. To live sustainably is to pull apart the veils and peer deep inside to know the essence of something so that it can be nurtured. That’s of primary interest to me.

 

Who inspires you?

Well, I should first give a nod to Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey, as their work regarding lifespan augmentation inspires me, and by extension, informs this site. And there’s a whole host of other characters, such as:

  • The Dali Lama for his compassion, forgiveness and authenticity;
  • Buckminister Fuller because he made it as a late bloomer (Colonel Sanders did too, but with junk food.);
  • Jack LaLane because he was an exemplar example of health optimization;
  • Cormac McCarthy for his poetic prose;
  • Joseph Campbell for his bone deep teachings, and grace;
  • Desmond Morris for providing me an anthropological perspective in my high school years; and
  • Jared Diamond for demonstrating how chance is often what builds civilizations, not exceptionalism.
  • Doris Spada, not just for being my Mom, but because she’s a fighter, and relentless. Oh, and she also raised me and my sis solo.

 

How should I use this website?

It depends.

If you already know you want to get biologically younger and are willing to take some action, become a Subscriber.  There are plenty of places to sign up, like here.

If you’re still unsure, dig deeper. A good place to start is on the Quickstart page.

Depending what you already know, you’ll either learn a ton or a pound, but you will benefit. It costs nothing, only takes a few seconds to type your email address, so do it… (I’ll even give you  a green button this time — green for go!)

{Remember, you’ll also receive a Newsletter on Sundays.}

Once you’re done with “Go, Go, Go…”, click over to Quickstart. You’ll find something to absorb you there.

OK, I’m done here… thanks for visiting!

Yep.

– Joe

P.S. Let’s get social – Follow me on Twitter:

And see my silly pictures on Instagram.

 

Share. Someone you know will be thankful.