#072- "Cops and Campers" with Eric Reynolds Part 2

In this continuation, we delve into Eric Reynolds' incredible journey, a former police officer forever changed by a near-fatal encounter in the line of duty.

Facing significant health complications, Eric embraced a remarkable lifestyle change, leading to the founding of 'Cops and Campers,' a non-profit organization. A pivotal moment during a camping trip, where Eric was refused permission to fly his Thin Blue Line flag, sparked his vision to create a supportive community for officers and their families. 'Cops and Campers' offers a safe haven for law enforcement personnel to connect, heal, and find solace outdoors.

Join us for this powerful conclusion as Eric reflects on his mission to honor his colleagues' sacrifices and foster a healthier, more supportive environment for all who serve. This episode is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the vital importance of addressing mental health in law enforcement.

Don't miss this enlightening conversation.

#resilience #healingjourney #mentalhealthadvocacy #lawenforcementstories #BlueGritPodcast #TMPA #copslives #inspiration #CopsAndCampers #ThinBlueLine

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, it's Tyler Owen with TNPA. Do you want to come on the Blue Grit Podcast and share your story or know of an interesting story or incident you think would be neat? Hit us up at bluegritatnpaorg. That's bluegritatnpaorg. You guys, take care, be safe.

Speaker 2: 0:17

God bless you and, as always, may God bless Texas and all of a sudden that's when they saw the muzzle flash. And then I moved to my left like oh shit, I'm getting shot at. And at that point I felt a tap on my shoulder. One of our SWAT guys had his long gun. He's like we got this, eric. I back up and then I start feeling the pain in my left foot on the last episode of part one of the blue grip podcast and they took off.

Speaker 2: 0:54

He's left. I'm gonna shoot my chase. Sirens taking off, dispatch that point. Our dui guy was coming on shift, just left the city pump to get gas and he was the closest backup and he was waiting. He made a U-turn behind us and now we're in the chase and he drives through some parking lots. He side swipes a couple cars trying to squeeze through. You know nothing like a direct impact Getting out of the car, going to run. You know what's going on. I see the door. He can't get it open. It's. You know he can open it partially, but you see it swinging. For a second I'm like, oh, what's it going to do? And all of a sudden, that's when they saw the muzzle flash.

Speaker 2: 1:28

It's like I got up and then I started feeling the pain in my left foot, like the heck happened. I looked down, I got to call my wife right.

Speaker 1: 1:46

So you, you had experienced the, the physical demand of being hypervigilant since that incident and that segued for many years and it continued for many years in 2018, uh, I guess you went to the doctor or were having some symptoms that led you to some cardiac issues. Uh, speaking of of carrying that, that burden and that weight, um, talk about that and talk about you know how, that, how, how that was exposed and thankfully it was because you wouldn't be sitting here today well, I actually went up to the blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia with eight other cops it was called Cops and Cabins and I think a group of us got together.

Speaker 2: 2:31

One of the guys was in the film and stuff, so he did a documentary on it and it was a great trip. I mean, we didn't know each other. There was questions of the day and there was all this therapy that was going on and I didn't. By being with the guys, I didn't know, not having to worry about what I said, because no one's gonna run back and tell my bosses or anything. And in that video I saw myself in 2017 and I didn't look great. I mean, there's a scene where I cry and shocking, and because I'm talking about one of the other guys that had been bashed in, had his skull bashed in in, and he was a little bit slow as a therapy dog, but you know, this guy just got beat down on the job, right. So, you know, leaving that and seeing myself that heavy, I knew things weren't going well, but I wasn't having. Yeah, I still exercised. I was, you know, I was in the gym four or five times a week, still playing basketball very active for a big guy.

Speaker 2: 3:24

I was like an athletic fat guy in a weird way and I was riding about 250 pounds.

Speaker 3: 3:29

Wow, really Way too heavy. What do you weigh now? 180. And you were 250?.

Speaker 2: 3:37

When I got shot I was 225. So 220 around. You know, because academy, you know, weight goes up and down. So I'd always been over 200 pounds since I graduated high school. College weight and all that I just kind of rode 220. I lifted, I looked like a guard, a pulling guard. So when I finally your routine monthly check or your yearly checkup oh your cholesterol is high, I'm like all right, whatever, I'm not going to take your pills. Check up oh, your cholesterol is high, I'm like all right, whatever, you know, I'm not going to take your pills. And then they recommended I go for a calcium or coronary um artery calcium score, where the measures the uh calcium in your arteries, mostly basing it off a plaque. So I went for that in 2019 to avoid the uh statins and all this other stuff and I came back with a 1500 score when the top is 400. So I was massive, massive, corroded with calcium in my arteries.

Speaker 2: 4:36

Now at that time I'm thinking it's soft plaque, I'm going to die of a heart attack. But it's actually solid plaque, that's. You know. It's like scar tissue healed up. I didn't know a lot about it then and the doctor's like you need stents. I got to get you to a cardiologist and I'm like, oh, now I got to look at worry about, you know, heart surgery. This is what you're telling me, right? You?

Speaker 3: 4:57

think a transplant or something.

Speaker 2: 4:59

I guess Jeez Right so I'd still played basketball and there was a guy I played basketball with and he lost 50 pounds and he said he did something called keto ketogenic way of eating. I didn't really understand it at all. I never took control of my nutrition, never took control of my health. I could write a search warrant but I didn't know what my blood work even said really. So you know, the calcium score came back high. I go see the cardiologist. He's telling about stents. I actually had an officer buddy of mine die after having stents put in.

Speaker 2: 5:29

I started researching stents and you know there's a big moneymaker right there and I'm like man, what can I do? Some of the buddy mentioned ketogenic and I thought it was keto was horrible. I thought it was some CrossFit training thing or martial arts. I just thought it sounded painful. Right, here we go again. I'm gonna run miles, lose weight. And I read up on. It was pretty much about eating pretty much meat and vegetables, a little bit of fruit you're just getting off of seed oils and pretty much carbohydrates, and it's a little bit different for everybody. Some people can go under 20 grams of carbs, some people go under 200. You know we're all different. Is it similar?

Speaker 2: 6:01

to like a mediterranean yeah, except it's uh more meat based I would say, more cheeses, dairy, you know, depending on what greens you want.

Speaker 2: 6:09

And I just let me try it. I'll start doing some meal prepping, if you know, and I started doing that and eating twice a day instead of you know, I'd eat at like 11 and 5 and within two weeks I was down like 10 pounds. I mean, it's like water weight, you know. And then six months later I was down 50 pounds. I was 204 pounds, which I never saw since, like I was telling you before I left high school. So guys in that apartment, like eric, what are you doing? Are you sick? You know, first I think I got cancer or some shit and I'm like no dude, I I'm feeling fantastic.

Speaker 2: 6:37

I found this way of eating. It's just like it goes against everything you said about you know, you're supposed're supposed to be eating oatmeal. I don't eat oatmeal. I eat bacon and eggs every day, you know, and I was feeling great man, and all during this time. Because now I understand the science of it. You know, when you're feeding your brain nutritious food, you have a direct line from your stomach to your brain. So when your brain is having nutrition put to it and not lowering the cholesterol, I was thinking clear. I wasn't foggy, the things that bothered me weren't as bad. You know and I'm not saying it's going to save everybody, but for me I noticed a difference.

Speaker 3: 7:16

I wasn't harping on a lot Like clarity. Would you say yeah?

Speaker 2: 7:19

a lot more clarity. Things weren't as big.

Speaker 1: 7:23

You know, I just wasn't dopey anymore in my thinking.

Speaker 2: 7:26

I'm tired. You know I was still drinking. You know I was still doing vodka every night. I wasn't pounding a bottle, but I was like I'm losing weight and I'm still able to have a buzz, which was great for me. I didn't have to take any pills from a doctor or anything and I just kind of rode that. And then, when I retired in 2019, I did carnivore, which is pretty much all animal based meat cheeses no, no, greens. I haven't had fiber now in four years, by the way, so I'm fine.

Speaker 2: 7:54

But at that point I lost another 25 pounds. I got to 176 pounds. I saw abs. I even did a calendar thing or an interview. I took my shirt off or a thing. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just trying wow, this is freaking insane. And I was like, wow, I started feeling more confident and I just kept helping guys, you know, and they nicknamed me keto five. Oh, and in the department I started helping, you know, guys lose weight. One guy lost 50 pounds on the he tells a guy at the sheriff's office. So I talked to a couple of people over there and I started a little group. I would get all these messages.

Speaker 2: 8:24

Hey man, can I have pudding? I'm like hell no, Look at the back of it, you know. You read us nothing but sugar and junk. You're not getting anything nutritious and my thing was always feeding the brain. You're not going to help yourself eating this crap. And it just kept going, you know. And then I, you know, when I retired I started private health coaching business helping cops, and that's kind of where it was going until all the other stuff happened along the way.

Speaker 3: 8:46

So sidebar question, because I've been reading on this and I'm kind of nerdy about it. I like Tito's, I like Tito's vodka, but I've been cutting out alcohol, all alcohol. I've also been reading about ketosis. When your body goes into ketosis, does alcohol?

Speaker 2: 9:04

affect ketosis. It will affect ketosisosis, but because you're going to burn through it so fast. I mean, it's always funny that your body will burn carbohydrates before it burns fat. That's what they're always like. That's why it's the preferred method. Just, the faster method is why the body jumps on it.

Speaker 2: 9:18

Well, if you drink alcohol, you're drinking. Your body will burn the alcohol first, then do the carbohydrates, then then do the fat. Well, the way a lot of my doctors that I talk to, they look at that alcohol as a poison and that's why your body jumps on it first. And the same thing with the carbohydrates, and then it gets to the fat, which is the nutritious part. So with the alcohol, you will stop yourself from ketosis. But if you're not mixing it with Coca-Cola 7-Ups, if you're just doing plain sparkling water that's not sweetened you know you want to drop a lemon in there you could still do the keto thing. There's keto friendly alcohols out there so you can still have your. You know, drink at night, take the edge off. You just don't want to be eating a bag of doritos with it.

Speaker 2: 9:58

You know that kind of yeah yeah all right, so I interrupted you so you're down, you're 174 things are going well 176, and then you said until other issues arose, tell us, tell us about so I, uh, my wife at that time we sold our house and she had been watching, uh, tiny house shows and stuff all the time tree house shows, let's put a storage tanker in the woods and like I'm like this lady's crazy, she's like hard charge minimalist now. And I was like, all right, we'll get a rig. But during that time, which I shared with you guys earlier, when I'm contemplating rv life, I never towed anything in my life. I've been towed but I've never towed anything in my life. I wasn't a camper, never grew up camping my mom's solving homicides, we never had time to camp, right. So for me to even think that was so outside my comfort zone and all this.

Speaker 2: 10:53

And then I got that email. I had done 23andMe four years before and on this day I got an email from a guy that turned out to be my half-brother, that was a cop in Orlando, two hours away. He's a guy that turned out to be my half brother that was a cop in orlando, two hours away. He's my older brother and he'd been full time camp well, not full time, he'd been rv in for 10 years and that's the first guy I camped with my older brother, I just found.

Speaker 2: 11:13

So it was kind of supposed to happen, clearly supposed to happen, I know, and you know, for the audience will know I dnh showed that my dad had a relationship with a lady years before and she got pregnant and put him up for adoption, and Dave was curious after his adoptive parents died. I wonder where my history is. Am I going to lose my hair or anything? And he puts it in. And didn't expect to find a cop brother two hours away, right.

Speaker 3: 11:37

Both cops two hours apart, Been two hours apart and been cops for 20 years, I guess.

Speaker 2: 11:45

Well, it's actually a funny story where my brother, dave, went down to Miami during Hurricane Andrew to help out and my mom was doing her shift and all that. Then they may have walked by each other we don't even know they were at the same location at that point, but that would have been kind of funny, like they looked at each other for a second and then kept walking or something, but something. But yeah, that was the closest we probably came was him going down there, and then you know he was retiring a year and a half later than I was. He did the 30 years sergeant drop. He's got the big rig. You know I got the pull behind.

Speaker 1: 12:17

You know, see the bumper pull that's how I was rolling for those that have not, have not looked at the fifth wheel, I encourage you to get onto YouTube and check them out, because it is my gosh Mike Gomez actually just bought a toy hauler. That is quite unbelievable.

Speaker 3: 12:32

It's kind of like telling them McMansion, yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:36

When me and Janet bought one. For those that don't know also, me and Janet, when we moved down here, we lived in ours for about five months. So, having two kids and a bumper pull trailer, I wasn't prescribed Xanax but I damn sure wanted to be on some just for a little bit. So, anyway, I will say this about camping life it is such a cool culture we just talked about this before we came on air. It's the people that live in RV parks. Of course you've got your shit bags I'm not disputing that but everybody's just so friendly and helpful.

Speaker 1: 13:10

One of the last nights we were at the RV park that we lived at. I had come home from work. Me and Clint had an event. As I come around the corner, I see a wall of kids. It's a weekday, it's a summertime. All of a sudden one of the dads said go. And all these kids were running from one speed bump to the other speed bump and they were racing. And we lived in this town that we came from for many years. I mean five, six years. I mean my son was six at the time, or seven, and I never witnessed that. But to have 10 kids outside racing like that, like when that I went like when I was growing up. It was, uh, it was pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 13:49

so yeah, the kids. I mean we homeschooled too. That was another thing that we pulled my son in 2018 when I was a little heavier then, just because we didn't like where the school system was going and for him he's an active kid, he needs to run around and then he can learn, kind of like taking a dog for a walk to comment or run. They'll calm them down. We just happened to pull them out. So when we got the rig and the truck and we're you know telling, it just made sense. We can educate as we go.

Speaker 3: 14:15

Yeah, so you sold the house and went full time. Went full time, that was 2020.

Speaker 2: 14:20

We left right when COVID hit. We already had a rig, so we're like well, I guess we're going to the south.

Speaker 2: 14:24

You know, we're not going out west or up in new york or maine, like we thought. So yeah, we just hung around tennessee and north carolina, that first year practice. You know I was driving for the first time going down the wrong way, having the back. You know all those nightmares, man. Oh you know, we we did. We've had some blowouts. You know, I got to one campground. My whole tire and wheel was gone. So I'm pulling it with a dually so I guess the dually didn't even feel it. So I get to the campground, the tire's gone, the whole thing is gone. I don't even where it was, somewhere in west virginia, probably still rolling around john denver's probably singing.

Speaker 1: 14:56

Yeah, I know right.

Speaker 2: 14:58

But yeah, we ended up, uh, doing the camping life, and everywhere I would go I put up that, that thin blue line flag. You know, to my blood, you know I've got officers that you know are on my body because of their sacrifice. And and then that one campground in New York says, hey, man, you got to take down your flag. I'm like what? No?

Speaker 2: 15:17

way yep, round out valley. So they guy rolled up on a golf cart didn't get out introduce himself, just said hey man, I walked over and just got done driving six hours from niagara falls and he goes. You got to take your flag down, like oh, that's a good one bro, you know now you got to take your flag down.

Speaker 2: 15:34

Like, oh, you're serious. I turn on my, my phone. I get the record. For once that was a weird feeling and I go what are you telling me to do again? He's like you need to take down your thin blue line flag. I'm like so in the video that went viral was me calling the guy piece of shit. And then the video cuts off because and that's where you saw the ptsd show up I hadn't been in the red in a long time and I went from zero to fucking 100 and I I would have freaking mashed that dude, but I walked away. Been in the red in a long time and I went from zero to fucking 100. And I would have freaking mashed that dude, but I walked away, got in the trailer he calls management. They send the manager over. We're going to call the cops on you if you don't get out of here with your flag. I'm like you're going to call the cops on the cop because the cop flag and I'm looking at Canadian flags in the same freaking complex, right. So I'm looking at Canadian flags in the same freaking complex, right. So I'm like piss, but I'm not leaving right now we retire. We just drove six hours so my wife calms the situation down.

Speaker 2: 16:29

I put the cause. The way it works is they own the ground. They don't own your rig. So if I put the flag in the ground I guess they have a little influence in their policy. If it's on your rig, they influencing their policy. If it's on your rig, they can't tell you to take it down. So I put it in my truck for now and I went on social media and I posted the video and it kind of caught fire and I got suspended from thousand trails, the camping club, because they saw the video and they go. You were belligerent to staff. So now I'm suspended. Never been suspended since high school. And now I'm ringing, suspended as a 50 year old.

Speaker 3: 16:57

Get put in suspension.

Speaker 2: 16:58

I'm like, I'm just trying to camp, Just trying to camp right, and so I get suspended, and I put that out there.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Well, guess what Now I got suspended for 1,000 trails.

Speaker 2: 17:07

All these cops start canceling their memberships. They're like. We want to know what your policy is on the thin blue line flag.

Speaker 2: 17:15

Because it doesn't say you can't have the flag. It has decorative flags. I guess this campground had an issue in 2020 with trump flag, when there were some issues, so they just said no flags that are controversial. But they looked at our flag as controversial. Well, the good thing is I stayed eight days as a nuisance. I put every cop thing I had. Any cop I knew in the area was showing up and it started gaining some traction. They even had a rally the next week. When we left, there was 50 cars at a tractor supply that waited for me. I drove all the way back and then we drove 50 cars with thin blue line flags in the wind, like it was a parade. I'm the second car and we're going back to the campground. I'm like, oh man, here we go.

Speaker 2: 17:58

The New York State Police stopped us at the campground. They walk out. This is 2021. They're all masked up and we're trying to offer them water. They can't accept anything. It was just so like they were robots and they pretty much kicked us out of there. No violent Nothing happened, but what ended up happening is I got in the back of his truck. When I'm talking to a group of people thanking him for coming out, I mean, I wasn't a rally guy. Here I am in the back and I go. We're going to start something. We're going to start pro first responder campgrounds Fuck this shit. You know we're going to go. We're going to call it cops and campers. You know, I just said it and here we are, two years later.

Speaker 2: 18:43

I'm a nonprofit. Five events. We did a documentary. You know, we got now I got people coming to guest speakers to come talk at these events, like kevin donaldson and dr robert kilts, who's metabolic doctor. I got the pts guy. We got like national guard coming out with bounce houses for the kids. I got a live band that plays saturday night. A bunch of retired cops. They play southern rock. I mean, it's just, everyone loves it. They get together and make new friends and it's like a lineup without having to go to your old police department anymore you know, and it just turned into something really positive.

Speaker 2: 19:06

I mean, now that campground has since fired their whole staff, they now got the thin blue line flying at that campground, so we won the war no way, yeah, that's badass yeah, because all my little spies that are over there, because I kept getting people walking up to me going yeah, they made me take my flag down last week.

Speaker 2: 19:21

I'm like what this shit, you know, so that. So here I am, you know, I'll you know, they find the brother you know. And then we get a call about netflix once, talking my mom about griselda, like this is insane, all this stuff that just keeps getting thrown at me. But now I'm using it for my advantage. I'm trying to use this now to help get guys to these campgrounds that need to help and sometimes, like I was telling I think it was something yesterday even the guys sitting around the campfire not all of them talk, they're just there. And that's the first step, that's therapy oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3: 19:54

100. We have these. 10 years ago, I guess, they started to trial these forced debriefs and you can't, you know, 30 hours after a shooting. Well, I'm going to order you in and you're going to sit down in a room with a bunch of people and you're going to talk about it. You can't, you can't do that and everybody's built different. Everybody manages that different, and I may be ready to talk in the morning and he may not be ready to talk for three months. Forcing him or forcing me, that's just not how that works and I feel like some of that's gone by the wayside a little bit. And for some people, sit around a campfire and listen. That's therapeutic. For some people and I learned the hard way talking about it is therapeutic to me at times, on certain issues I've been through, everybody manages that differently. I love that man and sitting around a campfire is so non-threatening and therapeutic. Well, it depends on how many cocktails you've had.

Speaker 1: 21:00

I've got my ass burned a couple times, yes.

Speaker 2: 21:03

Yeah, you were talking about how awesome it is that everyone's already happy camping. Yeah, they're already away from the stress, they're in nature. They're probably more relaxed than they usually are. That's why it's such a beneficial thing, because you're away from the rat race and you're talking to other people are feeling good too. You know, yeah, what's up. You want beer? Yeah, next thing, you know where are you from. You're just.

Speaker 3: 21:22

You know just hard to be hypervigilant in a campground.

Speaker 1: 21:26

I got to this. So we were at Lake of the pines camp and sit down. It's in, it's in East Texas Memorial for East Texas. We didn't this year. I want you to picture it it's Sunday. We stayed an extra day this time, but this family is getting ready to pack. They're dumping before they get ready to go. It's like 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It's hot. My kids are getting ready for their second trip down to the lake. I look out at my 11 o'clock and this, this guy is straddling again. We're not fancy. Like like your, your buddy. The fifth way, this is a bumper. Pull the latch pull, not the electronic.

Speaker 3: 22:10

Yeah, for the gray in the water pool yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:13

So this guy straddling the black tank black tank for the non-rvers out, there is your poo-poo, pee-pee tank. It's not something you want to jack with.

Speaker 3: 22:23

There's gray tank and black tank. Gray tank is soapy dishwater and shower soapy water. The black tank is hazmat.

Speaker 1: 22:31

So this guy's straddling this black tank and he's getting ready to, and I'm looking at him like this dude's fixing to absolutely mess up, and I'm looking at him like this dude's fixing to absolutely mess up. And so when he straddles it, you know on the tanks there's a hook, and so when you hook these things and you pull this latch, that's what releases all this fluid. It smells wonderful, and so you could tell that I'm probably 25 yards away and I could tell this hook is not hooked correctly and the hook is upward hooked correctly and the hook is upward, and as this guy is looking downward, he pulls the latch and probably 25 gallons of black tank water again, poo, poo, pee, pee, uh, just absolutely hits him in the face and thank God, uh, I am a spiritual person and I do believe in in, in God, almighty. I was upwind, I was not downwind, because you could tell throw up, and people were getting sick, downward and down with that from that guy. But yeah, it was a comical.

Speaker 1: 23:28

I'll never forget that to the day I died. It was. It was pretty funny.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Yeah, I reversed the uh black tangoes Washington once and overfilled it because I got distracted with the kids. My wife was screaming it was raining black water inside the freaking church. But at least I already dumped it once, so it was just a little burn, it wasn't too bad.

Speaker 1: 23:46

Yeah, when you live in one full time, you kind of like did you know, this Toilet paper stacks up like triangles. I mean it's like there's little wands that they got to Paper pyramids. Yeah, I don't know, it's just an interesting life, it's, it was, it was fun, but I was I'm glad to sit down on a toilet. Uh, now, that actually doesn't sway when I sit down on it you're a big guy too.

Speaker 2: 24:08

Yeah, I mean, those toilets probably aren't made for you too well no, no, they're not. So you guys still full-timing still full-time and we're actually actually looking at, uh, the, I guess the Tri-City area in Tennessee at some land, the homeschool and stuff like that and the nonprofit.

Speaker 3: 24:29

Do you guys have quarterly events? How often do you guys have events? Where can people find Cops and Campers? You can go to copsandcamperscom.

Speaker 2: 24:35

You can go to any of the Facebook Instagram, all that we're on there. We have an event on July 11th, 12th, 13th. Where's that going to be at? In Ithaca, new York. It's in the Finger Lakes. It's actually at the first. When I got suspended from the camping group, four different campgrounds in upstate New York said hey, man, bring your flag, your rig and your family, your stand.

Speaker 3: 24:53

No kidding.

Speaker 2: 24:54

So, and that's what's part of the whole cops and campers thing is like all these awesome places. So now, every year we go back to the first place that invited me Spruce Row and Scott over there, big pro cop, he's got the thin blue line flag flying at his campground all the time. Now it's got a cops and campers flag flying, but we go there every year for an event. He welcomes us, he has charities that he helps and we have the Ithaca. I don't know. I think a PD is one of those defund, the police type of cities. So those cops, when they come out, that is something they need because they're finally surrounded by people that are on their side and understand what they're going through. You know, and they don't get that over there, you know, and, god forbid, they got to talk about some PTSD.

Speaker 2: 25:33

I can't see how the city is going to be looking at protecting them at all, are going to be looking at protecting them at all, you know. So are there any texas locations? Not, yet we're looking at it. I mean I might get this set up, you will. I mean we'll bring them, let's get it, and I keep joking around, but we're going to get some awesome group like five finger death punch, to come to one of these events or something you know. I don't know. And but what's been happening, what you know? I just started I didn't know about nonprofits. You know, everyone I talked to said don't do it you know because it's a nightmare, but you know it's.

Speaker 2: 26:04

I mean, what else would you want to do when you retire except help the guys that helped you get to where you're at Right? So this, I found, has been a great way to bring in the metabolic, you know, specialists to help guys with their diabetes, with PTSD, in a campground atmosphere, and to help guys with their diabetes, with PTSD, in a campground atmosphere, and then maybe they'll have a doctor that will help them with the other issues, or a health coach like me or somebody else At least. All right, let's help you dance with this. It's not going away. It's never going to go away and we've all been through it with you and hopefully that will get enough guys help.

Speaker 2: 26:34

And I mean, our suicide rates are insane right now. It's out of control. Our suicide rates are insane right now. It's out of control. These guys are feeling alone. They don't know where to go and we're always open. We want to start collecting so I can start finding guys from traumatic events or something that may have just happened, planning an event six months out. You don't know that you might need that event yet. So we have cabins there and sometimes we have rigs. People bring and donate for the weekend, for somebody.

Speaker 1: 26:59

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 27:05

Or you can use rv share. There's other things we can do. Um, and once you get a taste of camping man, I don't see how you go back. Dude, the thing we saw all five great like that summer when we got kicked out of the camp almost kicked out. We never planned to go to michigan and we saw the up. We saw all five great lakes, we swam and I'm like I never saw a great lake.

Speaker 2: 27:19

That's the atlantic ocean and all in the gulf. I was worried about sharks and stuff, and I'm still swimming in these lakes. I'm like there's no sharks in here. There's got to be something in here that eats me right. There's gotta be. You know, we got alligators and dinosaurs in florida, so it's man, what a trip my kids got to experience.

Speaker 2: 27:34

That that's um my kids are my life. I got into it in my 40s. I had a second chance. Luckily, with my shooting I didn't leave. And those guys, they're my boys, man, and why not? I mean having these little guys. And now we travel around, they want to hunt and we worked on farms. We slaughtered animals Like I never did any of that in a suburban kid in Miami. And next thing, you know I'm holding on to body parts and pigs and steers and stuff. But and they've seen it, they know we're. You know they walk around with finger puppets, with chicken heads and stuff. It's insane. But they understand where their food comes from and they know the hard work that goes into it and that fast food shit that's making everyone sick is not the answer.

Speaker 2: 28:16

They know that you know sick is not the answer. They know that. You know and they're going to be the future. If I'm not able to keep going on as long as I want they're going to. You know, take over for me. I know it.

Speaker 3: 28:25

So did your life change, your culture, your eating change. Did that help reverse that 1400 calcium score Is there what's your medical journey look like today.

Speaker 2: 28:35

So, ironically, I went to an event and that came up in conversation about my previous high calcium score and they were like, wow, that's so high. What is it now Like? Well, it's been five years, I don't know. I haven't gone to get it retested and historically they don't go down. Maybe they go down a little bit depending on your diet and what are the things you're doing. But a score that high, you're not going to really break it down under 400, which is the limit. You're never going to go down that far. So they said, oh, why don't you go for another test? I'm like, all right, so I got a doctor that I knew in this world and goes out, cover your cost for it. And I went and I came up four thousand or so. It tripled since I retired and started eating healthy. So now they're perplexed because they're like wow, he's got no soft plaque. He's not a heart attack risk based on the soft plaque. He's got an enormous amount of calcium that calcified in his artery, especially my main ones, but it's not causing any blockage. You know all my stress tests, everything's still good.

Speaker 2: 29:40

So by me losing that 50 pounds, you know, from the keto to carnivore, it was such massive healing internally. You know what was going on. So they started looking at other things and one of the things that turns out is I was very toxic, very high in mold and heavy metal poisoning. You're like where the hell you get that from? Well, you get heavy metal poisons from your food, from the environment, from vaccines and stuff like that. So I look back at mercury fillings in my mouth. You know, I just had them taken out, six and he removed them. He's like, yeah, they were bleaching into your system, you know. And the mold I didn't think much about it, but it's on a cellular level, the mold, and it's from, I think, a lot of it was being in a dirty evidence room for six years. You know all that talking. I mean, that's one of the reasons we changed police departments, because of the mold in the old city and then also wearing that vest all the time.

Speaker 2: 30:32

My, my vest would be so moldy I had to lay it out in the sunshine, spray it down all the time, and you all you're doing. You're like a petri dish, wearing that uniform all day long, you know, and you're not getting sunshine. I'm not walking around on my shirt enough, you know. At that point, you know you do your 40 hours or whatever next, you're not getting outside enough. So so many things. My diet was really bad. All that processed food. If you eat animals or eat high mold and toxic food and you eat them, you're going to get the same toxins passed down to your body. Yeah, you know. So I went a lot more cleaner, grass-fed, you know, or more organic stuff. I don't do plants, so my wife and the kids do. I mean I might do, uh, avocados, stuff like that, but I don't touch the plants. Man, they got oxalates. Man, that stuff causes thyroid issues. That that causes kidney stones. You know you overdo anything. It's not good for you. Yeah, you know so that.

Speaker 2: 31:25

So my journey now is looking at I'm detoxing right now. I had the mercury taken out. I'm in a regimen of taking these different um, like drops. They're supposed to be like therapeutic to get rid of stuff. And it's, they're supposed to be therapeutic to get rid of stuff.

Speaker 2: 31:42

It's been weird things going on, like detoxing. I had an ingrown nail one day and it just infected. The lady was like, yeah, that's part of your body detoxing, it's pushing out all these toxins and stuff out of your body. That's where I'm at. I'm waiting for the next blood work in about three months, the CAC score again. We're going to do again in January. That'll be another year and we'll see if it goes down or stays the same. The problem is we don't want to continue to calcify because something's causing that. There's irritation, there's inflammation, something is going on in my body and now that we eliminated the diet, we know it's other factors, environmental, you know, and I was saying some of the other food choices and yeah, so that's where I'm at now and I'm feeling great. I do get a little worried sometimes. I am running, you know, and I feel the heart pounding. I'm not gonna lie. I do look across the gym. I'm like, all right, there's the aed. And then I'm like, all right, what?

Speaker 1: 32:29

kind of these guys. Who knows how to work that thing in here?

Speaker 2: 32:31

you know like yeah, but it does cross your mind. Yeah, you know I'm 54 and to be thinking about a heart issue at 54 when you never had one, except what the doctors tell you it's. You know it's worrisome, but then I also know that side of it. You know it's a big moneymaker. They have their, you know their path and what you're supposed to do when you have this and that's not always the right answer for you individually. There's other ways to go and if I would have been listening to my doctor right now and if I would have been listening to my doctor right now, I probably already would already have probably triple bypass surgery and put stents in and all that.

Speaker 2: 33:03

I would have already been there and then I would have been just waiting for the day. I mean at least this I don't know what is coming and I still feel fantastic yeah.

Speaker 3: 33:12

Well, and it's weird, when we before we came on, you're like well, I may lose it in there as a cop in your 20s and 30s, you're fearless I will run through the door, I will get in a gunfight. You know, hell hath no fury when I'm showing up to the scene and blah, blah, blah. And then you hit like 50, and now you're like I freaking watch TV show and I'll cry in a damn heartbeat and it makes me so mad. And you start thinking, man, I'm not, as there's some morality, mortality to this life, and it's such a weird transition from being bulletproof in your 20s and 30s and you know, by God, I'm here to protect and serve and you hit your 50s and freaking, cry, watching a damn movie, and have health issues pop up, and it's really a fascinating shift in life.

Speaker 2: 34:11

It's like June 12th is coming up and that's the anniversary of my shooting. It'll be 12 years.

Speaker 3: 34:16

When you mentioned father's death. So we're nearing this.

Speaker 2: 34:19

So it's always like, wow, you know. And the funny thing about June 12th I'm a numbers guy and June 12th is also the same day that OJ killed his well allegedly killed the two people and then also the Pulse nightclub shooting June 12th 2016.

Speaker 2: 34:38

And I look at my wife's birthday and it's like honey was invented, you know, flowers were, you know. It's like my stuff is always like, oh, you know warrior battles and you know this, this catastrophe happened. But yeah, with father's day coming up, it's man, I, we got honored in 2014. We got, or 2013, we got to go out to washington dc. We were honored as national police officers of the month and we got to go to the dinners and got to like. They took us to bars and we were full uniform with guns on and shit, man, I'm not used to drinking in bars full duty, you know. But it was all okay then and and that as awesome as that was that that almost broke me being there around the candlelight visual and then hearing the people crying around me because you know, and then you're like developing survivor's guilt, you know, and then you got to kind of switch that mentality and say you know you're here to help other people. That is your gift now and go with it.

Speaker 3: 35:37

The new wine yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:39

Yeah, and that's what I've been doing, man, and it's been great. I've been meeting, you know great guys like you and these other officers and even dispatchers. I've met firemen. I've met, you know, first responders across the board. We're all suffering, you know. Yeah, right now we're talking about police suicide, but if you go around firemen, I mean even air traffic controllers, dispatchers, I mean some of the stuff. My six months of dispatching is still some of the most horrible things. I can remember people being on the phone and me trying to manage that call on the phone, you know, compared to being an officer when you're on scene not knowing what's going on.

Speaker 2: 36:13

That drove me crazy, that you know I'd be calling out a guy 10-4 check and he's not answering. I'm like going crazy. So I mean those dispatchers, I mean my heart always goes out to them. I always brought them coffee, always took care of them, you know, and but out to them, I always brought him coffee, always took care of him, you know, and.

Speaker 3: 36:30

But all of us need that help and need that support.

Speaker 3: 36:31

Well, what I love you've been through a lot, um, you've seen a lot, been through a lot and what I like and it took me a long time to figure it out from some of the incidents I went through pts is real. People suffer and how people get through it all changes. But it took me a couple of it took me a lot of years to realize every morning when you get up, you can decide to have your own damn pity party or, like you said, you're out, I'm gonna travel, I'm gonna help people, I'm gonna, you know, have people around my campfire and try and show love and try and share support. And that helped me heal a lot, because I spent a lot of days getting up in my own damn pity party and woe is me and I've been through a lot of shit and this sucks. And when you can find a way to rechannel, refocus that energy into hey, dude, I've got a freaking great opportunity to get up today and kick some ass or find a way to. I love that about what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 37:26

Despite all that, you've the different challenges you face yeah, I was saying to somebody that we all have, like I've had trauma in my life right before I was a cop. And then you kind of look for, I want to help people. Whether it's a bad decision on a girl, I want to save her, or something like that. So we get into these professions to help people and then we never take care of ourselves right, and then you add on 20 years or 30 years of trauma. What do you think is going to be waiting for you at the end? Depression, anxiety, all this horrible stuff for you. So, yeah, I mean it's it's good to get the guys together, start talking, get it out, man, cry it out. If anyone's going to judge you for a crime, then you don't need them around you anyways, you know we were in police week two weeks ago and I was, I don't remember.

Speaker 3: 38:11

I was talking to somebody up there and I said you know, the funny thing about cops is we're fixers. We want to show up on a call, there's a huge crisis going on and we're gonna fix it in three minutes so we can clear it and go to the next call. We're fixers, but we're not worth a shit fixing ourselves. No.

Speaker 2: 38:28

Nope, you're right 100%. That's nailing it right there, man.

Speaker 1: 38:32

Well you got anything else.

Speaker 3: 38:34

That's all I got. Tmpa FOP Joint Conference is coming up Dallas, texas, july 26th, 27th, 28th, dallas High Regency at Reunion Tower there in Dallas. Hope everybody shows up. Look forward to seeing everybody there, yep.

Speaker 1: 38:50

We usually like to end the show with three rapid-fire questions. I don't know if you studied it or not, but we're going to throw it out there to you. Let's do it. What is your favorite line from a cop movie or your favorite cop movie? You like how I did that? Yeah, it was perfect, you nailed it. It was perfect, you nailed it. I know I've been practicing. Favorite cop car and your favorite drink of choice?

Speaker 2: 39:08

All right. So what was the first one Favorite line?

Speaker 1: 39:11

Favorite line from a cop movie, or your favorite cop movie. Oh, I fucking nailed it twice.

Speaker 2: 39:14

Well see Dirty Harry that was my home run. That was my first experience as a cop.

Speaker 3: 39:20

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:25

Was seeing that guy and leaning on his car and he pushed him off. The guy just laid there on the ground. We got in the car and we drove over. I was like he didn't say anything. So yeah, dirty Harry and Favorite cop car, favorite cop car's got to be the Crown Vic. Yeah, my man, I mean nothing like that engine running no 100 Yep, all right. And then Favorite drink of choice Old days yeah, it would definitely be a double vodka with, like, some sparkling water or something. That's it.

Speaker 3: 39:54

Any particular flavor of vodka. Not flavor, but brand. Well, I am a Tito's guy. Heck yeah Texas.

Speaker 2: 40:00

And it wasn't because I was coming here to the show either. I'd always. Tito's was always. You know what? They always had cool display. They had a cool bicycle or a cool something. I was like I'm going to grab Tito's.

Speaker 3: 40:08

Tito's is the stuff. Where are they based? Out of Dripping Springs?

Speaker 2: 40:13

Oh, that's right. Looking for sponsors, tito's, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 3: 40:18

I tell you what Tito's is awesome. When COVID struck and there was a shortage of hand sanitizer, oh, that's right. Tito's recalibrated their machines and was providing law enforcement hand sanitizer. It smelled funky, but it tasted good.

Speaker 2: 40:36

I was just going to say who's drinking it.

Speaker 3: 40:38

It cleans your hands and your stomach.

Speaker 1: 40:40

I think them and Deep Swiping so much Tito's and Deep Eddie's is the other place I was talking about Deep Eddie's is good.

Speaker 3: 40:45

Yeah, dripping Springs.

Speaker 1: 40:46

Anyway, tito's and Deep Eddie's is the other place I was talking about. Deep Eddie's is good, yeah, Dripping Springs, Anyway. Well, this about wraps it up. Again, the conference July 28th through 26th. 26th to the 28th. Sorry, I've got ahead of myself 28th through the 26th. We're going to put all the information for cops and campers down here at the bottom. Appreciate you coming on, man, greatly, greatly appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 41:03

Keto 502 is the nutrition side. If you want health coaching, some advice or anything, hit me up there too. Keto50.orgcom com Everything's Keto 502.

Speaker 3: 41:13

CopsandCamperscom Yep Cool.

Speaker 1: 41:16

Awesome. We'll put all that information in the link below. You guys, take care, stay safe, stay cool and hope everybody has not been too affected by all the storms that have swept across Texas. God bless you and, as always, may God bless Texas.

Speaker 2: 42:27

We're out, thank you.