From Badge to Balance: Journey to Keto Five-O

In this episode, Eric Reynolds shares his journey from a law enforcement officer to a health advocate, discussing the challenges faced by first responders, the importance of mental health, and the transformative power of community and nutrition. He emphasizes the need for open conversations about trauma and vulnerability within the law enforcement community, highlighting his initiatives like Cops and Campers that aim to support fellow officers in their wellness journeys.

 Takeaways

•  Mental health is crucial for law enforcement professionals.
• Community support can significantly impact recovery and wellness.
• Nutrition plays a vital role in overall health and well-being.
• Breaking the stigma around vulnerability is essential for healing.
• Trauma can have lasting effects on individuals and families.
• Engaging in outdoor activities can be therapeutic for first responders.
• Self-care practices are necessary for maintaining mental health.

Contact Eric:
IG-Keto Five-O
FB-Keto Five-O

IG-Cop and Campers

Transcript

Critical Aspects Podcast (00:01.663)

All right, welcome back to Critical Aspects of Law Enforcement. I am your host, Vernon Phillips. And today on the show, we've got a special guest. We've got Eric. I'm gonna let him talk a little bit about himself, give just some background on who he is, his background in law enforcement. 

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (00:54.657)

What's up? I guess you want a little introduction? Is that what we're doing right here? All right. All right. Let's see. I'm a retired police officer from Boynton Beach, Florida. That's near the West Palm Beach area for people that aren't familiar with that area. My mother's a retired Miami-Dade homicide cop. She did 30 years down there. She's my stepfather. So I grew up in Miami-Dade County during the 70s and 80s. We all know what was going on back then with the cartels. And so I didn't plan on going to

Critical Aspects Podcast (00:58.245)

Yeah, a little intro time.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (01:22.977)

be a police officer, went to college, Florida State, go Seminoles. I know it's been a real rough year, but we'll bounce back. So anyways, didn't think you'd be a cop. I tried to go the federal route and stuff and ended up catching shoplifters for a store called Birdines. I know the Florida people know Birdines because it was the Florida store, right? But ended up getting recruited by the Bowie Beach Police Department after catching a bunch of shoplifters saying, hey man, you get this cool Batman belt, you know, and you can actually get a pension. I started thinking about stuff as I got older, you know, and

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (01:51.959)

Did my 20 years as a Boynton Beach police officer and got really sick and a lot more traumatized looking back at it than I'd ever realized. And my path has taken me different routes and it's been actually crazy and actually started living life once I gave up the badge and gun. And I started a nonprofit, Cops and Campers, about outdoor therapy, which we'll get into. then I had a health journey when I was diagnosed with heart disease.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (02:20.481)

You know, was looking, I was 80 pounds heavier. I was looking at getting stents, which had killed my friend Joe. And then I'd really started looking at my health real aggressively. And I took control of it. I learned how to read blood work. I learned how to, you know, understand what I'm doing to my body, why what I'm putting in it, you know, and it became a science to me. And then I got my nutrition's license over the pandemic. And then I was able to start helping first responders at different campgrounds. Uh-oh, I hear an alarm going off.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (03:15.019)

So anyways, I started getting into this health world of health and first responders. And as I was camping, I started meeting more, you know, military guys and everybody. They were pretty much metabotically sick and they were also, you know, trauma out by what they'd experienced in life. And that's why they were camping. So we started having campfires and little talks and became therapeutic, you know, and that's why my cops and campers initiative took off. I mean, there were some other things about a campground asked me to take down the thin blue line flag.

I almost got arrested in New York because I wouldn't take it down and it turned into a kind of a shit show But we turned around positively and we turned something good with it. So yeah, it's been crazy You know, my mom had a show a character on Netflix that came out last year on Griselda She was the star detective in it. That was her role. I mean her the actress playing my mom So it's really been a lot of you know when you're traveling full. Yeah, another thing we sold our house as I retired we got an RV

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (04:11.501)

We were already homeschooling. Now we've been traveling the country the last four and a half years, homeschooling our kids and just living the dream. everything that's happened, you know, obviously since COVID happened and the restrictions, my kids have never seen it. They don't even, I mean, they know it, but they haven't really experienced it a lot of like the way other kids have. So everything's been just magical the way it is. You know, my middle name is Michael. My mom's always like, hey, St. Michael is guiding you. You know, we were in Monticello, Tallahassee area looking at work right around September and guess what? Two hurricanes came through and we ended up in Alabama. So we don't know what path we're being pushed into, but it's been just an amazing journey. mean, it's really, and self-fulfilling, and really dealing with my own issues. 300, I'm sorry, I'm 460 days in, no blues, which, woo! Just hit a nerve right there, sorry. Yeah, woo! Yeah, I didn't think it was that bad.

Critical Aspects Podcast (04:57.852)

Alright.

Critical Aspects Podcast (05:00.347)

Yeah, no, that's good, man. Congratulations on that. Keep pushing forward,

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (05:07.391)

No, what it is is I had to step back and really look at my life and what led me down to booze and to calm my central nervous system down and, you know, get myself, you know, because, you know, I heard you on John Kelly's podcast talking about you all, you know, you're never in that relaxation state, you know, and the only thing that ever got me there was booze you know, unless you got a prescription or some Xanax or something, you're not going to tell your department that because you can't drive a car. You know, it's all kinds of rules and regulations. So booze was the way out and it's culturally accepted. You know, everyone does it. I'm not up here to preach to anybody to stop it, but you know, know your own battles with it. You know, know the bad decisions you made and it's prolonged. You know, I started drinking probably 18 years old, you know.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (05:57.133)

Florida State when I was there, there no more party school in the country like three years in a row. And I took advantage of that. So I learned some bad habits, bad eating habits, bad ways to deal with stress. And that's why I ended up having to reevaluate at 50 years old and retired and said, see ya. I left the drop money on the table. I left a lot, but I got my life back, my wife, my kids.

Critical Aspects Podcast (06:19.699)

Yeah, and you you can't put a price on that. That does not, you know, lot of people, when people make decisions like that, they're like, what, you're crazy. Why would you do that? That's, you know, that's X amount of dollars. But when you're looking at just your overall health, the longevity of your life, right? Just the sanctity of your family life and all of that, like you can't put a price on that, right? I mean, and...It's just you may not walk out with your retirement and say having the X amount of money from the drop program, but you walk out so much more fulfilled and richer in the aspects of being able to have your health and your family and that support group around you. So, man, Eric, there's a whole lot of stuff there that we want to dive into and kind of want to start pulling out. But man, I appreciate just your willingness to share that and just to be authentic.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (07:10.508)

Alright.

Critical Aspects Podcast (07:17.991)

Because that's what this is all about right it's about getting on here and talking about the the impacts of the law enforcement profession right how that really impacts individual in the profession and You know what we see stems from that but not only that but then also how we see people on the other side and The more we can talk about that the more we share those stories the better You know we can have that the impact on the culture so yeah, we're gonna dive into some of that but

So as we kind of move forward, I know there's a lot that you probably want to talk about, a lot of what you want to hit on, and there's a lot there that we can definitely pull from. we can't get into all of that in just one episode. But as we begin to start, mean, you kind of shared a little bit about yourself. But right now,

Critical Aspects Podcast (10:36.083)

What is it that you do to just keep yourself kind of balanced as far as like just taking care of your physical, your mental, your emotional, and your spiritual well-being? Like what is it you do on the regular, on the daily to kind of keep all of that balanced? And what are some of those tips that you can provide for other people?

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (10:54.359)

Yeah, well, I am constantly moving. take probably 15,000 steps a day. You know, they call it ADHD, but I think that's just naturally what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be moving around, picking stuff up, building stuff, and you know, that's just how we were designed. Look at our bodies, right? And I get myself moving. I do coffee broth in the morning, which is I...

Critical Aspects Podcast (11:09.575)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (11:15.895)

put some or I'll do collagen and some heavy cream and a little stevia because I did you know Dunkin Donuts for 20 years my coffee has to have a little bit of something in it right so but you know and that's coming off of usually only eating two meals a day I fast you know I eat around 12 1 o'clock and I another little snack six to seven and that's it you know and I'm strictly a carnivore now I've been carnivore about five years I pretty much all animal based products meats cheeses broths you know

Critical Aspects Podcast (11:24.051)

yeah, yep.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (11:43.021)

Once in a while, my wife has sourdough bread, homemade, know, with like three ingredients, not 25. You know, and I'll put the ghee butter on there and I'll take a little salt and like sprinkle it on there. So I mean, I have my little treats, but it's not like the way I used to eat. But yeah, I mean, and I hit the gym at least four times a week, the three times a week in the gym is I do resistance training. I'm not trying to do 12 sets of buys and back in the same day anymore.

Critical Aspects Podcast (11:55.515)

yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (12:09.517)

You know, I'm doing a full body workout. do a lot more calisthenics stuff like slow. Everything is slow resistance. If I'm doing a push up, it's slow. If I'm doing a pull up, it's like I'm, I always think I'm like a Navy seal trying to pull up out of the water or something like that. The goggles on, I'm trying to just hold myself there and I start shaking quick, man. You know, I just never train like that. And that's the kind of stuff I'm concentrating on. Cause when I was 250 pounds, I was trying to lift.

Critical Aspects Podcast (12:09.704)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (12:30.78)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (12:37.773)

like I was 250 pounds, you know? And that's not my natural weight. You know, when I started ketogenic weight and I lost 50 pounds, couldn't believe it. I went down from a 44 to a thigh, it's like size 38, 36 waist. And it was just shocking to me because I'd been at that weight for about 15 years. And man, then once I went, I dropped the vegetables because I only had vegetables in there because I felt guilty, right? And then I did a little more research and understood my body.

I'm not preaching to go carnivore everyone else, but with me, when I got the plants out of my life, and alcohol is a plant, prescription drugs are a plant, where do think all this stuff comes from, right? So I got away from it, and I read some books and started following some doctors, and I got myself right. It's a good elimination diet to go strictly beef and salt and water, and it saved my life. I loved eating, it was simple. I didn't have to think about planning anything, but when you have a family.

Critical Aspects Podcast (13:23.82)

yeah, that's...

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (13:31.297)

you have other obstacles that come along the way. You know, can't strictly make them go carnivore because you're like, I'm going to do the lion diet, you know? So yeah, I mean, it's been, but that's what I do. I keep myself active and moving. You know, I listened to a lot of, you know, a lot of podcasts that I can, everything from Rogan to Sean Ryan to, know, stuff that where I get a different perspective on things and especially from a veteran's angle, you know, cause they're usually they're hitting some that I'm going through.

Critical Aspects Podcast (13:39.856)

Okay.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (13:58.529)

So, you know, I just read books when I can at night, even though I go right out, you know, just, man, you want to put, you don't even need a drug, just give me a book. I'll be out so fast, it just relaxes me. So yeah, man, and it's a battle, you know, I got shot in 2012 and it was the most terrifying day of my life. And even though it only through the foot and the leg, I mean, that guy was trying to kill me, right? So we ended up killing him.

Critical Aspects Podcast (14:03.634)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (14:20.481)

yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (14:22.993)

And you know, there was so much that happened afterwards that led to the wake in and the PTSD and you know, obviously the drinking and the diet didn't help, you know, and then my buddy Joe was probably in the best shape of anybody in our department died jogging, died of a heart attack. It kind of opened our eyes in 2016 because all of us were a lot, you know, you're looking at your belly, hold, you know, over the gun belt at his funeral and you're like, man, if that dude died, what's going on with me? Right.

And you know, I had two young kids, he had two young boys. So mean, it was very, you know, we caught shoplifters together at Burn Eyes. So I mean, I knew this dude for a long time. so, opened my eyes, he saved my life. And you know, I really looked into my health and you know, for my kid's sake, and that's why I had to change everything. But yeah, I'm sorry, I went on a tangent. You asked me about starting my day. It's hard. Mondays, Mondays I'm ready to rock and roll just like it's always been. It's hard. I have to freaking slow it.

Critical Aspects Podcast (14:50.12)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (15:10.547)

No, you're good, man. No, you're good. It's it's

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (15:19.085)

down man because Monday since we were little kids get ready for school let's go hit the bus or at least me you know or you're getting a ride or something you know and practice it was just always boom boom go go go so I have a hard time just chilling you know I'm saying so and it's five years into retirement I'm still like this you know but it's it's better but yeah I had to walk outside look at the trees I'll grab a yoga mat and sometimes I'm not doing that yoga crazy stretches you know one leg over my head sometimes I'm just sitting there

Critical Aspects Podcast (15:24.115)

Yep.

Critical Aspects Podcast (15:33.361)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (15:48.749)

relaxed and yeah, besides just do that child's pose. I can almost go to sleep with that. But yeah, it's really just getting out to nature has been like a life's, you know, it saved me, you know, really got me back. You know, I was able to understand nature and my relationship with, you know, the spiritual side of me too, you know, coming out in this environment, really able to connect with my wife and kids like every day I'm with them. I never grew up with that environment. You know, my mom was there. I like, I always knew she was there.

Critical Aspects Podcast (15:48.775)

to Warrior Pose.

Critical Aspects Podcast (15:54.3)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (16:13.629)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (16:18.955)

And I'd have police cars pick me up, take me to football practice. If she, you know, she's out there being super cop and you know, Hey, you know, go pick Rattles up and take them to football practice. Right. And I just, I think we missed out, you know, and I know some of the stuff you do with trauma. know it gets passed down and I know I've passed it down to my kids because there's almost a difference between my two boys from the one that was born before the shooting and to the one that was born after. You can see the caution. You can see the.

Critical Aspects Podcast (16:37.895)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (16:45.811)

Hmm.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (16:49.121)

He's not scared, he's just a lot more apprehensive. And it could be just his personality, but you start seeing in other cops' childrens other people I've talked to and you're like, wow, there is something about that being passed down. My mom was married to a military guy, traveled, so it comes from generations and generations of warriors and fighters and farmers. That's all we really were, right?

Critical Aspects Podcast (17:00.925)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (17:12.283)

Yeah, you know, that's the thing. mean, there's a lot of stuff there you talk about that that that I can definitely relate to them, especially, you know, I cut out gluten and corn and all that. And I went strictly carnivore there for a little while. And then now I'm kind of, you know, like a ketobor kind of. And then, you know, I still kind of plug some not carnivore or keto things in there. You know, I'm

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (17:40.333)

As long as you know, as long as you know, when you're eating it, you're thinking about RFK Jr. in your head like that meme everywhere. They open the fridge, there's RFK Jr. sitting there.

Critical Aspects Podcast (17:46.877)

Yep.

Or it'll be something like, know, we'll get some ice cream or something. My wife will be like, you know exactly what that's gonna do to you. And I do, right? I know how I'm gonna feel afterwards. I know how it's gonna affect my body. And I know that, you know, I'm probably gonna spend at least 30 minutes in the bathroom because it just, doesn't work out well for me, right? So I tried to cut, you know, a lot of that stuff out, but man, I tell you what, so I did really well.

And then last January, my wife started getting into the sourdough thing, right? And now she is like a sourdough, like freaking like expert at all this. So she, you know, the different loaves she makes and she'll make, she'll make bagels, she'll make sourdough bagels and hamburger buns, and she'll make sourdough cinnamon rolls. And it's like, you're, you're killing me with this sourdough. Like, like literally, right? So I,

Critical Aspects Podcast (18:45.115)

I've tried to like kind of cut that back, no, actually, I'd went strict carnivore there and I saw a huge decrease in inflammation, right? Just I saw more sustainability in my overall energy levels. Like I wasn't having those crashes in the afternoon. And then people are like, man, how do you eat that? then, you then you get a nice, like a nice cut of ribeye or whatever. And it's got some good marbling in there and people are like, how do you, how do you eat the fat? And it's like, after a while, the fat actually, starts to have a sweet taste. And I don't know if you've probably experienced that. it, I mean, I enjoy it. I'm actually probably getting ready here, probably after the first year to go back strict carnivore, just because for myself, a lot like you, I did some research, I listened to some different individuals, read some different books. I was not gonna go too crazy and cut out my coffee.

Critical Aspects Podcast (19:42.607)

I know, even though I know where coffee comes from, but I can tell you what, I felt the benefits of it, but man, that sourdough.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (19:46.081)

Yeah, I got coffee too, man.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (19:58.379)

Well, it's discipline, as you know. And I battled too. used to have a thing for almond butter. So bad to where I just had a thing of almond. And this is as I was losing weight on keto because I'm still battling. I needed some fat and I got tired of just the other fat and nothing like a scoop of almond butter. So I recently got off of that like three, four, like I'm an addict, but I put the almond or almond butter away and I started doing little dark chocolate, like the cacao dark.

Critical Aspects Podcast (20:00.667)

It is, it is, it is, it is discipline for sure.

Critical Aspects Podcast (20:13.128)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (20:27.474)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (20:27.917)

I'm a big football fan.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (20:57.355)

you know, sports fan in general. I mean, I lost a lot of sports over COVID and it's not because they died either. was just because of what happened. So I lost basketball and I lost baseball a little bit. Like I just, don't know. So I got more free time to look at myself and stuff. So yeah, I like the dark chocolate option. It kind of keeps the beast calm and it's a good, you know, sometimes I'll even get those morsels that you'll throw in like chocolate chip cookies because sometimes they're on sale. And if you just look at the back and keep that corn syrup out of there, it's just cane sugar.

Critical Aspects Podcast (21:04.177)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (21:27.053)

your body can at least handle that a little bit better in smaller doses than just, you know, gluttonize and with the corn syrup all the time. But yeah, I'll do a handful of those and all right, it's like &M's but without the poison, you know, so it's just kind of that's you got to do little things and you can do it. you know, I listen, I saw you said the whole food diet that you tried and you know, I've been everywhere. I've been from Weight Watch. I mean, I didn't sign up at Weight Watchers, but I ate, you know, lean cuisines and all that crap to try to lose weight. And only thing that's ever really been satiating

Critical Aspects Podcast (21:37.97)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (21:57.069)

was eating pretty much a meat-based diet. And because I was on a plant-based diet my whole life, everyone's like, well, you got to cut back meat. But guess what I was eating all the time? Brown rice, any flowers and weeds and any seeds that were out there. And then it turns out when I had my, you know, I going through this cardiology stuff, I had multiple testings going on and I had heavy metals and mycotoxins. So I got heavy molds all in me that I'm trying to detox. And I also got the mycotoxins were aluminum.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (22:27.397)

and arsenic which comes from brown rice and then you got aluminum and then the other was mercury and I had my six fillings taken out because they were just poisoning me. So there's more than just your diet. I try to tell people that's the first thing you should because it's a direct line into your body is what you're putting in your mouth. But the other stuff has happened over time. The aluminum, where's that come from? I use Ritegard. I saw all those commercials in the 80s. That stuff's, dude, it's crazy when you start to detox.

Critical Aspects Podcast (22:43.048)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (22:50.706)

Yep.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (22:56.749)

I've had flare ups, got diagnosed with Lyme disease, never even knew I had it because my body was just going through a complete purge of different things and different symptoms I thought was inflammation was Lyme. And different things like that. It cost me, I think it was about 800 bucks to get one those full panel done, but I did it, man. I used my little healthy, healthy card that I used to have, whatever.

Use it, use it for that stuff, man. You know a doctor can write you a prescription for the gym.

Critical Aspects Podcast (23:25.522)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (23:29.341)

There's probably a lot of people that need that.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (23:31.243)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (23:33.779)

No, but I mean that's I have my blood work done every every six months I go to a the the provider I go to their their functional Practice so, know a lot of that is hey, let's get to the root of what's going on like right in your life so and That was kind of actually after going through my blood work and everything. I mean So I've got I've got Hashimoto's so, you know for a while there after I was diagnosed that you know, they put you on

Critical Aspects Podcast (24:00.883)

Synthroid and you're doing all that but I have not been on Synthroid for Over a year now You know, so you can you can definitely control a lot of that stuff through your diet, right? eliminating eliminating certain things that definitely you know increase that and and just you know, exacerbate that and what's going on your body, so But no, I mean just going through my blood work and stuff and like hey look you would probably benefit from doing a carnivore diet

And yes, that's why I started this earlier this late kind of summer, August, I started looking into it some more and that's how I jumped into it. So I guess I'm still, I was, was real strict there for a little bit. And then, you know, I kind of started to do more of like the, like the ketobor, but I'm getting ready to go back to just the strict carnivore. But, you know, it's interesting, you sit there and there's a lot of things you talk about, like, you we homeschool and, when I say we, I really mean my wife, because obviously I've got my full-time gig, so she homeschools our kids. We got four kids. So that's something that's the decision we made back right after the whole COVID thing. they're like, hey, you're going to be doing this. Everybody was forced to homeschool anyway. And at that point, we're like, hey, you know what? is probably better for us anyway, better for our kids. We can control the things that are pushed in the content that they see.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (25:16.834)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (25:27.667)

We definitely have hands-on in their education. that's something else there that you talk about, having homeschooling and stuff. It's a lot of work, but for us, we wouldn't change it. It's just a...

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (25:37.954)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (25:48.021)

Yeah, the homes. Wow, what a man I was a fool before I kind of made fun of my wife when she introduced it. And I'm like homeschool what you know, like the only guy I knew at that point at homeschool was my buddy who was a Jehovah Witness. And that's all I ever I'm sorry. Yeah, and that's all I've ever met when I was a kid was religious people or something like that. So I came into it a little bit ignorant but a

Critical Aspects Podcast (26:11.379)

You had a predisposition about homeschool kids are weird, right? mean, that's growing up, obviously, you know, going to a public high school and then when somebody from homeschool would come in, you'd be like, man, this person is weird. But that's not, you know, that's just a stereotype that we all, you know, we fill in. You get it. And it's just the way it is.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (26:31.819)

Well, I started meeting some kids, you know, after I left, we did a little like bicycle unit that was a community outreach thing. I worked with a lot of kids and sometimes we monitored like the Explorer program. You my supervisor oversaw that. So sometimes you'd interact with these young kids looking to become cops or just trying to keep them out of trouble. And you talked to a lot of them that were homeschooling. They were very articulate. They kind of had direction in life. And I was always kind of impressed with that. And then when my wife mentioned it in first grade to pull my oldest out.

Critical Aspects Podcast (26:53.62)

yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (27:01.069)

We went to a meeting, know, homeschool at the park, know, I was in the middle of like a Tuesday and it was really cool, man. Of course, like half the women were wearing like tablecloths as clothing, you know, it's like a very hippie vibe and my wife was like, I'm going to love this. And I'm like, my gosh, here I come. But you got to remember when my wife was having our first, we went to a birthing class where I would get done on shift, take my gum belt off and then I'd be in a house with all these other people sitting in a circle on these pillows.

Critical Aspects Podcast (27:15.955)

Ugh.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (27:29.813)

Right? Talking about, you know, natural childbirth. And I'm like, I was just at a shooting like freaking two hours ago. Right. And here I am like, the benefits and don't let them starve your wife. She needs to eat a full meal. It's all this. So, yeah, it was man, the homeschool. So I met all these cool people, started talking to the kids and they were like, yeah, I just do science all the time. And he's already like doing college science at like 13. And I'm like, imagine that you found a couple of things you like that you just went that way. Right.

Critical Aspects Podcast (27:36.561)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (27:56.882)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (27:57.547)

Instead of stopping you, well, you got to meet this science requirement. You got to meet this requirement. Hold on, let's stop any progression and learning. And the creativity I realized with my kids, what it did to me. I still draw like in third grade. know why? Because I never took an art class again after third grade. It's so funny. How you just get, I come from, my mom was an artist, my uncle was an artist. I could still do it, don't get me wrong. But what I'm saying is I should have been

Critical Aspects Podcast (28:16.307)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (28:27.309)

I would have loved that kind of direction to be. Hey, try this out, try an instrument. We know you're athletic, you like playing sports. All right, little warrior man, but what are the other things that you would like to do? Building, shop, start pulling shop classes and all this stuff out. And now I realize how, what skills do I got after 20 years as a cop? Get what I'm doing now, I'm doing security. That's the kind of skill I get. Drive trucks, get another cop job. What are you really gonna do? You're not gonna be Mr. Personality for the most because you're not wanting to talk to people. it's like, you kind of get stunted in that world unless you're a cool fireman and you have a landscaping business, pressure wash business, got the big truck. So I don't know, I really looked at, as my kids now, they know how to start a fire. They can survive in the woods at 12 and nine. We watched the survivor shows, all those alone and I'm learning with them. I'm like, I didn't know that either. Let's go start a fire or let's build something.

Critical Aspects Podcast (29:21.853)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (29:24.897)

You know, I'm almost reliving my childhood, but it's being productive. We've worked on farms the last four years. We slaughtered a pig. We slaughtered a bull. We've like been like in it and it's crazy. I'm a suburban kid from Miami. I never learned any of that. I've seen dead bodies like on the streets, but I've never, you know, had to see one start to finish. And that's educational for them. We're looking at homestead. And so yeah, that's, you know, it's just been a natural progression of where we're at, you know, and it started with homeschooling was the first step.

Critical Aspects Podcast (29:55.111)

Yeah. So when you kind of look at, we'll transition a little bit here, but you know, when you start looking at kind of law enforcement general right now, like what are some of the, like some of the key points that you think that we need to do better at as far as, know, onboarding our new recruits or even just instilling some, some good techniques into our, our current, you know, our current people who are already working, you know, some of those veterans that are already there.

Okay.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (30:21.697)

Yeah, I remember this coming up. We used to have a program where our rookies, you know, they're in service training, they're all sitting around and we would bring in cops that had been in some critical incident. You know, most of us been involved in a shooting at that point. One cop was shot. One had to shoot a guy that was fighting, you know, two guys, you know, the cop was fighting for his gun with a suspect and this guy had to come up and make that decision. Right. And how they got divorced and you know, all this stuff and you know, it wasn't a trauma dump, but it was just letting them know the world, you know, that they're going to

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (30:51.575)

come into and what can happen and the after effects and how important it is to talk about it. And if you need therapy and you know, I don't think so much you need particular therapy with drugs and all that. I remember when I was asking for help because I didn't know where to go and I had to do the EAP route and she was like, yeah, you do have PTSD. And I'm like, all right, now what? Do got to my department? Am going to take my gun? You you start thinking about all this stuff. So luckily my workers comp lawyer knew a guy. then I got

Critical Aspects Podcast (31:13.585)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (31:19.389)

lawyer on board to help me with this but yeah it was a was a fight to get that help because you know there is a stigma and It wasn't like I was scared to go out there. I was gonna shoot again. There was no doubt in my mind I'd already pulled my gun out twice I almost pulled a trigger on our guy because he reached in his pocket for his ID because he didn't understand me So you look at that you're like damn most wax that guy, you know, and I would have been covered You know, I would have to explain it of course, but I would have to live with that decision. All that stuff is bearing down on me. The workers' comp, finally the boardroom full of six attorneys on their side make me break down and finally they're like, all right, yeah, he deserves a good talk to somebody. I finally got the therapy. Dr. Mark Barnett, he's down there in Palm Beach Gardens. works with all of us. He saved my life, pretty much what it was.

Critical Aspects Podcast (32:07.985)

No, you're good,

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (32:13.803)

All that breaking down when them shitbag lawyers was worth it. And now, you know, other cops have gone that same path, you know, without having to disclose it and shame themselves. You know, and I think that's one of the issues, you know. It's fucked up to see some of the shit we see. You know, it's okay to get upset about it. I remember all of them from day one. You know, they're in my memory.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (32:39.917)

I know guys that are on the job struggle with it is there and they're drinking themselves. getting in fights with their wives or being grumpy with their kids and it's slowly happening over time. They got to find a source, an outlet for it. They got to hang around people that aren't cops. I started coaching T-ball for my little kid. He was one those where you walk in to help and you walk out with a team and now I'm calling, getting numbers for everybody. I'm like, how to become team mom also. But that was great. I kept my mind off of the streets and constantly being.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (33:08.589)

there all the time. I was still there, but it wasn't as much. I didn't have to take my gun onto the little tee ball field is what I'm saying. Instruction with little kids and seeing it was so therapeutic and talking to the parents and it kind of got me out of it a little bit. That there is decent people out there, because we don't unfortunately, we don't come across them most of the time unless it's an award ceremony or a funeral. I mean, coffee with a cop. I'm like, sure, set me up to get freaking gunned down. I always hated that but, yeah, it was, I forgot where we're at. I know it was all over the place with the workers comp and then.

Critical Aspects Podcast (33:46.833)

No, you're good. We're talking about just some of the key points we think are just some key factors right now in law enforcement that are some things we need to work on.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (33:59.917)

One of things I was saying is, how many guys you still friends with when you first started? You ever notice that? Y'all break away, someone gets promoted, someone goes to another department, you know, or someone pisses you off or something, and now you're not friends anymore or some shit. And then when you leave, I had an older cop tell me when I was like five years in, and he goes, see all these people and all your friends? None of it is going to matter when you leave this place. It's just going be your wife, your kids, or your family that you've built at that point. And I was like, yeah, whatever.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (34:29.621)

You know, but he was right. Cause I still, mean, I love all those people I worked with, but honestly, there's maybe five that I keep in real touch with that I've gone through stuff with, you know, and I've met more on this road. I've met more friends for life that have come from other areas, other departments. You know, we were talking about my event in Ithaca, New York. meet Ithaca cops, you know, and I can call them up and shoot the shit with them. Like it's my world is expanded in the law enforcement brotherhood, you know, and that's been freaking I think that's guys need to take more trips to FOP conferences. They need to go to Washington DC. They need to go to different events, law enforcement, you know, and get away from where they're at being stagnant and that one way of thinking and you know, we don't talk enough amongst each other. We are always too busy, you know, pushing trying to step on each other to get to the next level. Right. And it's sad. I'm glad I got out of 20 years, man. I don't think we should be cops much longer that honestly, I don't know.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (35:28.299)

We should get paid a lot more money and do less time. I think there's other things we can do for teaching guys and like what you're doing and you

Critical Aspects Podcast (35:32.605)

Yeah.

Yeah, and the statistic on that is, you know, in a 20-year career, you know, depending on where you do your research, I mean, there's some places that say in a 20-year career, you know, a law enforcement officer will experience 800 critical incidents, right? And then some of the research will say, no, in a 20-year career, it'll be 188. Well, it doesn't matter if it's 188 or 800, right? The average citizen is two to three in their lifetime, right?

So even if it's at the 188, you're still significantly more involved in critical instances than anybody else in the general population, right? And that's in their lifetime, two to three in their lifetime versus at minimum 188 in your 20 year career. And people expect you to not have an emotional response to that, right?

They expect that, know, for you to go into a situation where you pull a three-year-old out of a pool and you can't resuscitate him, not to impact you, right? Not to affect you, right? Or you get into an officer-involved shooting and they expect that not to affect every decision you make from there on out. Because just like you already pointed out, it does, right? It affects the way you think. It affects the way you interact with people.

Critical Aspects Podcast (36:58.033)

You're always second guessing everything. You're always looking at somebody else and you're like, what are they getting ready? Are they getting ready to smoke me? Right? Or what's getting ready to happen? So I think that the more we actually talk about this stuff, the more we get it to a point where it's like, look, man, I remember my call three months ago and this is what happened. And man, that freaking sucked.

So it's all right to stop and say, hey, I'm having a hard time with this call. But that's what we don't do, right? We don't do that. We internalize it, we shut up. We don't talk about it we think if we bring it up, people are going to think we're weak, we have an inability to do the job, or you're not cut out for this. And it's like, that's not true at all. Just because you become a cop doesn't mean that your emotions stop.

Critical Aspects Podcast (37:51.675)

Right? Doesn't mean that the things that you see and encounter aren't going to impact you aren't going to, you know, cause you to start acting different. It to you and interact with the community, different interact with your family, different because it absolutely does. Right? I mean, within the first five years, statistically, you are not going to be the same person you were when you started. So, you know, when we start looking at that, it's like, yeah, there's a, there's a huge deal here. And when we don't talk about all we're doing is we're indoctrinating the next

Critical Aspects Podcast (38:21.125)

Generation of law enforcement professionals to do the same thing. It's always been done, right? Keep your mouth shut do your job. Don't talk about the crap and you know what if you either work out like a fool or or drink right Those are those those are the go-to to you know to mitigate that the physical mental emotional impacts of the profession, right? Either you work out like a like, you like there's no tomorrow

Okay.

Critical Aspects Podcast (38:50.931)

A or you drink so that both of those are not long term, you know, effective coping strategies. And some people are like, whoa, what do you mean exercises? No, if you're doing it to avoid taking care of the presenting concern, what's at the root, what's at the cause, then you're not actually addressing. Right. The trauma, you're not actually addressing the roots. All you're doing is you're just you're just.

Critical Aspects Podcast (39:21.029)

in that cycle every day, right? So the more we talk about it, the more we get people to say, hey, you know, it is okay to go and talk to this first responder therapist and sit down and say, hey, this week was pretty rough. And the more you do that, the more you're gonna see cops that are healthy, that are engaged, that are better serving their communities, that are better serving their homes, and that just in general are better law enforcement professionals.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (39:45.217)

Yeah, John Kelly tells a story of he went to AA or a meeting that one of his, got jammed up as a cop, you know, and some with, he went to an AA meeting and one of his bosses kind of pushed him, you know, to go to, he saw, he saw some other cops in there and how that kind of broke it down a little bit for him so he could, okay, I'm not the only one going through this. And I think we need to be ahead of that. We don't need guys to be at that crisis point of an alcoholic that they can walk into a room and feel comfortable talking about shit, you know, but.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (40:15.093)

You know, if you walk into a room and you talk about, you know, man, I thought I almost shot that guy. It was a close call. And then you break down because you've built up, you know, 10 years of stress. We know we are. They're going to be like, Johnson was caught, you know, crying because of a fucking gun call. And that's the kind of shit we got to stop, you know, because we've all known guys that have been the super tough guys that have been fucking, you know, humbled, you know, you know, we had a cop once that

Critical Aspects Podcast (40:41.238)

yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (40:43.489)

it said you want a shot at the title and that guy fucking took his title. Like I knocked that bitch out, you know, and you'd sit back as a young cop and you learn from these older guys. You learn what's working, what's not working. You know, you see the SWAT guys. There's a reason those guys are usually looked up by. Because they're usually in shape, they're put together, you know, and with our department, that was the way to go anywhere, unfortunately, from at one time, not so much now, but at one time that was the route and you know, being in shape, but then those guys also drank a lot and partied. So you just adapted that, you know, and gosh, you know, I made some real bad decisions as a cop, you know, in my early years, drinking and driving a few times, you know, when I probably shouldn't have been, you know, and I, know, so I've learned my lesson from those moments. It wasn't in the police car. I'm like, I'm driving home, you know, but guys do that too though, you know, I've seen it, you know, I've seen them in front of strip clubs. I'm like, that's weird. There's no detail. You know, so.

Critical Aspects Podcast (41:31.655)

Yeah. yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (41:39.991)

But yeah, mean, it's not a normal job. It's a man created job. And one of the things I also, I think we should get more benefits as homeland veterans. mean, nothing against the military. Most of us, a lot of the cops are military guys anyways, but I just think we get forgotten about. We don't get the same benefits at times. And there's not that the VA is the greatest thing in the world, especially if they're far.

Critical Aspects Podcast (41:46.024)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (42:08.341)

following the wrong medical advice of the powers that be, but at least they got an avenue to get help. And we don't have something like that. I always thought that we should have like our own police type of hospital system. We pay enough in taxes and those BS freaking, you know, insurance that they try to tie us with the city people and everyone's paying the same. It's just a nightmare. So, I don't know. I've always thought about something like that, you know, and maybe that can open some doors for more, you know, cops and campers events.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (42:38.305)

where it could be cabins and it can be more of a week long therapy that you're telling yourself, I got a drinking problem. I think I need to work on this. got some other issues that's, know, other trauma that I have to, you know, I've done art therapy. That was very beneficial to me. Actually right there in Tampa, University of South Florida, I went there and that opened my eyes to so much trauma that I've had back from my childhood. Stuff that, you know, I didn't have any issues with, you know, being molested or anything like that, but you know, my parents have been married eight times.

Critical Aspects Podcast (42:59.635)

Hmm.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (43:07.489)

You know, my mom is a homicide cop. was trauma there. lived, you I saw what she was bringing home and just being a young kid at the time of a divorce parents, you know, in the seventies, that was new, you know? So I discovered all this crazy stuff that just weighing me down, you know, actually it let me open up. And then I was able to refocus. Like one of the things was every time I got behind a Lincoln town car, it would put me back to my shooting. Cause that's the chase that happened, you know? And I would

Critical Aspects Podcast (43:20.146)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (43:36.973)

elevate my heart rates or sweat and I could feel it even though I try to control it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. There was but this art therapy man a couple days later is behind a Lincoln town car and I didn't think twice about until it turned because it's the same kind of turn when he crashed and then he's to open the store. So shoot and then I saw it on the corner of my eyes. Holy shit. That was a Lincoln town car. So I called the doc up. I go I don't know what you did to me but it's working because it delayed the response. He's like well that's what's supposed to happen over time. You know and

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (44:06.317)

I guess has to do with moving some of the stuff in your frontal lobe to the back. I guess moving your hard drive stuff around little bit. Don't underestimate that type of therapy. I'm telling you, cry it out. If you don't feel comfortable around cops, get somewhere else. Or lie about your name. Go somewhere else. I cry every podcast. My kids make fun of me. Because it's therapeutic. And sometimes I hit something that I forgot about or I haven't addressed.

Critical Aspects Podcast (44:13.117)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (44:30.429)

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (44:33.729)

And it's like, wow, I didn't know that bothered me also. It's like, jeez, am I just this ball at trauma? And then I'm just trying to let it out here and there. I guess I am in a lot of ways. That job's, it's a hard job, man. Honorable. Trust me, I loved it. But it takes, you sell a piece of your soul for that pension. Just understand that.

Critical Aspects Podcast (44:48.241)

Yeah, yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (44:55.751)

Yeah, and the thing is you're not the only one. mean, you sit there and you're like, man, am I just a big ball of trauma? And it's like, and you're like, yeah, maybe I am, but it's like, you're not the only one, right? There's so many other people that, you they, you know, we talked about the SWAT guys, right? There's so many people that they, you know, they look, they look the part, they're squared away, right? They're, you know, they're in shape. They're, they seem to always be on point, but, but we don't know what they're struggling with, right behind closed doors. don't know that on the inside they're held together with bubble gum and duct tape, And it's like, but that's what we do, right? We put up this facade, right? We put up this face sheet and we're like, hey, this is who we are, but really behind it, this is truly who we are, right? And that's one of the things about like art therapy and getting into stuff like that, because when you start actually like, hey, you know what?

Critical Aspects Podcast (45:51.325)

Take this mask, right? And on the outside, we want you to represent what you want people to see or how you want people to see you, right? So you generally, you'll see people, they'll do like Iron Man or they'll do like a Superman sign or they'll do something, something where it's like, it goes right back to, I'm the elf, I'm the tough guy, I'm the, phases me, right? And then, hey, they're like, hey, on the inside,

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (46:16.843)

Right.

Critical Aspects Podcast (46:20.657)

Now paint how you truly feel. You know what happens? There's a significantly huge difference between what's on the exterior of that mask and what's on the interior of that mask, right? Then you start to see guys and girls writing things like broken, know, no purpose, where am I going, know, doubt, fear, you know, like,

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (46:34.082)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (46:49.175)

they start writing these words or they start or they'll draw or paint cracks on the inside, Signifying that they're broken, right? That there's cracks in their armor that they've got, but that's not how they display themselves to people. when we do that, right? And that's how the law enforcement first responder culture is, right? That all we're doing is we're continuing to do a disservice to the men and women that serve.

Critical Aspects Podcast (47:15.259)

our communities, whether they're law enforcement, whether they're firefighters, whether they're in corrections, whatever it may be, because we're not giving them the opportunity to say, look, I'm struggling with something. I love this job. I enjoy what I do, but I just need to, I need to hammer some things out. And when we don't give them that opportunity, right? They stow that for 15, 20 years, 25 years, whatever it may be. And then you start seeing, now they've been.

Critical Aspects Podcast (47:41.939)

divorce and remarried three, four times, extramarital affairs, overweight, health problems, drinking problems. They get out, they retire, and three years later they're dead. And we're like, nope, we don't talk about it. But it's like, okay, well then nothing's ever gonna change and the things are gonna stay the same. And the average lifespan of a law enforcement officer is gonna be 59 years of age.

Statistically, yeah, they're probably gonna have they're gonna be overweight. They're gonna be have health complications You know cardiovascular disease all this stuff, but hey, let's just keep doing things the way we've doing it because we've always done it that way Right. You want to stifle any type of growth or change? That's what you say. Well, this is the way we've always done it Okay Right Yeah, I mean

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (48:24.161)

Alright.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (48:33.639)

Look at that success rate. We had a guy retired with three pensions, died five years later. He had one from his Coast Guard days, our department, and then he did one of those state pensions for like six years, school board. Five years, you got to enjoy it.

Critical Aspects Podcast (48:47.537)

Yeah, and then people talk about, you know, what are we doing? What's going on? Why are we having so many suicides? Why is that the leading cause of law enforcement death? Well, it's because we don't give people the opportunity to share their struggles, right? They feel like they're the only one and they're not the only one. Now, they may be what they're experiencing. They feel different, right? It impacts them different, right? So we don't know how they're feeling.

Critical Aspects Podcast (49:17.457)

But there's individuals that have experienced similar things and they are experiencing it in a different way. And they just, there's this idea that you're alone, we don't, but that's why, that's why I, you know, we do this. That's why I want to talk about it. That's why, you know, you come out here and you're vulnerable and you're authentic and you you've referenced your shooting a lot and how it's impacted you. And then, you know, and then on the, you get on the backside of it and you talk about, you know what?

Critical Aspects Podcast (49:46.747)

I did some art therapy and it kind of, you know, reduce some of the, some of the side effects of that, right? It started to kind of, you know, take away that emotional fuse. And that's what happens when you actually go and you sit down with somebody or you use some type of modality of treatment is right. You're, taking the emotional fuse out of that. And then you're actually getting to the root of the problem. And then it actually gives you the ability to go back and enjoy life or maybe even enjoy your career.

Critical Aspects Podcast (50:16.623)

And for you, it's now you're on the other side of your career, you you're retired and now you're seeing a lot of things for the first time and you're enjoying your family, you're enjoying the things you're doing and it's had a significant impact, right? And it's led you into doing these other things, right? It's led you into the whole, you know, the keto five-oh and the cops and campers. So how much is that like the keto five-oh and the cops, how much has that impacted your life?

Critical Aspects Podcast (50:45.371)

in the last several years.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (50:47.405)

Well, the weight, you know, when you lose 80 pounds, that's life changing. And it's literally, and I started growing my hair out when I retired. So now I'm here, I'm the hippie cop, as you always see. But I actually did it as a joke with my kids. I go, I'm just gonna grow my hair out. Now it's become like a family prank for five years, because it's still kind of weak. It ain't like I'm having any dreadlocks here. my kids have their hair all long and beautiful, you know, because they're young lions, right?

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (51:12.215)

But no, losing the way to change my mindset, it helped my symptoms of PTSD. I wasn't inflamed all the time, you know, and now I'm still can be a grump. Certain things can set me off like everybody. mean, you were talking about, you know, we all come into this with some sort of trauma. think most of us cops anyways, there's some that's happened. We want to make a difference. You know, whether we've been a subject of violence or, know, God forbid something worse, we don't want that to happen to other people. So then, you know, the compassion side of we're a lot more compassionate than most people I think, especially to put our life on the line. I think that's one of the things you were talking about that we have to get a hold on that, that that's why we're feeling the way we're feeling because we are so compassionate. And not to be feeling bad about it, you're supposed to feel bad about some of the shit you see because like I was saying, it's messed up. But some of the things that happened along the way with, I changed my diet, I decided to retire my 50th birthday and that's how the whole keto 5.0 kind of got started. I lost 50 pounds, it was just a natural flow.

Hawaii five-oh, I was like, all right, you know, and I found a brother in 2019 through DNA. was an orange County sheriff's sergeant and he worked at the courthouse over there and he had done DNA three years after I did. So in 2019, I got an email and I said, Hey, I don't know anything about my birth parents, but you came up on my 23 and me and found him. been in the camping for like 10 years RV camping. I never even touched it. Never even sniffed it.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (52:40.429)

And you know, we had, that was a great meeting. had to call my dad and say, dad, you knocked some girl up in Pensacola in like 1967, you know, what were you doing? He knew he's like, she worked at lingerie at Zeres or something. anyways, Dave meeting Dave, that should be the movie. open my eyes to the camping. And then he had been a cop for 30 years. And then some of his traumas and talking to him.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (53:08.693)

as real brothers, but yet law enforcement brothers. And then we got interviewed on Fox and Friends. We auditioned for the amazing race. All this crazy shit was happening and it was just like retirement. I'm starting this keto five-o nutrition coaching thing. And we never got amazing races, COVID hit. We never got a call back because they started flipping police cars like four months later. So they were done with us. yeah. So yeah. And finding Dave and then the flag incident in Ithaca, New York.

Critical Aspects Podcast (53:30.704)

yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (53:36.429)

you know, or it wasn't in Ithaca, it was in Rondout Valley in the Hudson Valley area. You know, how passionate I got about that flag and I still trying to, you know, handle myself and control my emotions. And I don't know, it really turned us, they had a rally there for me a week later. had to drive from Niagara Falls for my own rally through some weird cities in New York, 50 cars with thin blue line flags. It really became something passionate. And I was like, you know what? There's a lot of guys that need this. I meet a lot of loner.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (54:04.781)

you know, lone wolves roaming around, you know, that need a little circle. And we started having these rallies and man, it's been an Iowa, it's a lot, you know, but just getting the guys coordinated together, come camping, that's all it is. We come camp together and some guys make fishing buddies, hunting buddies. All of a sudden you got New York cops buddying up with like Boston cops, you know, busting balls. And it turns into something that you remember what police work kind of used to be.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (54:31.893)

that we kind of have because we're big brothers always watching every move. You can't have that conversation like we used to. And I don't know where it's going. I think we're going to be like the fire department. Eventually everything's just going to be call to call. Send the drone first. You need a uniform officer. Some robot shows up. So learn how to control those drones or something, man. I think that's where it's headed.

Critical Aspects Podcast (54:52.371)

So what, you know, if somebody wants to, you know, touch base with you, or they want to learn about, you know, hey, changing their eating habits, or they want to learn more about cops and campers or any events you guys have, where can they go to do that?

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (55:06.861)

or you can go to keto50.com or anything, copsandcampers.com. If you put cops and campers in YouTube, you can find our documentary we did. And all this is funded by us, me and my buddies, and it's all of us. And we went nonprofit last November, not this one, but the year before. And so it's a grassroots movement. We're trying to build it. I've had guest speakers come to a couple of my events and just hanging out.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (55:33.335)

you know, shooting the shit and also I got therapy lined up for guys that want more meditation and yoga and you know, I got carnivore and keto vore doctors that are willing to take on clients. And one of things I can say for you, leave is get yourself a continuous glucose monitor. Get one of those things that you slap on the back of your arm. Even if you pay out of pocket, watch what, watch what your diet does to your, your sugar levels in your body.

Critical Aspects Podcast (55:53.483)

yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (55:57.951)

and see what affects you and what doesn't. Like I'm a little better with potatoes than I am with rice. So I mean, there's little things you could do to help you battle the weight. But yeah, keto five, cops and campers. You can find me anywhere. And if you want to see my mom's character on the Griselda show, it's pretty crazy that she was on. I mean, my mom's on freaking cartel show. It's freaking wild, you know, like, hey, that's my mom. And they even have a little Eric in episode two. I think she's taking me to baseball practice. So it's kind of funny to see some kid being Eric, you know, so.

Critical Aspects Podcast (56:16.487)

That is pretty cool.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (56:25.889)

But he needs a carnivore diet too though. He's a little like soy bush.

Critical Aspects Podcast (56:30.259)

Yeah, they, so as far as the glucose monitor, they, I've got one and I want to say with my insurance, it was like, I think it's like 30 bucks or something like that. You know, and they run for 14 days and then, you know, you swap it out. So, but yeah, so it's just, know, slap it right on the back right here. I got mine on, you know, and it's just download the app on your phone. You can monitor, you know, can eat and then monitor and you can actually track, hey, what am I what am I putting in that's going to cause my sugar to like to to spike right and you can make a note of that and then you can document that and you can say hey you know what I need to avoid this because I know if I do this there it goes right so

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (57:14.413)

I saw differences even with energy drinks, certain ones. Certain ones I can have and didn't affect me. have another one, like ding. I'm like, well, I'm staying away from that one because obviously I'm not a bear hibernating. I don't want to increase my fat. I want to burn fat. Definitely that was one of the biggest things because when I was going through my heart disease stuff, they wanted to figure out. I don't know if anyone's had a calcium score real quick. Mine's over 4,000. I'm like a unicorn. I'm one of the very rare people walking around with over 4,000.

Critical Aspects Podcast (57:17.554)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (57:23.56)

Yeah.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (57:43.617)

cact score that doesn't have stents and I don't have, not on statins. I'm kind of, they're trying to figure out why is my calcium going up all the time, but that's why we did the mycotoxins and the, you know, all these testing to see if I'm being poisoned in another way. So, you know, I do talk about that on my social media stuff if people want to see some of that and you know, it's been scary. hard

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (58:06.215)

is that adrenaline through your whole career, dude. It's not a healthy thing. It's really damaged, and we're not supposed to be under attack all the time. understand that that is gonna take its toll, and that's what kills not only most people, right? It kills us, like freaking hands down. All right, so.

Critical Aspects Podcast (58:09.841)

No. yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (58:21.351)

Yeah, yeah, you know, that's the thing like cortisol, right? That's what happens, right? When you're put in a stressful situation, right? You get a cortisol dump because it gives you that fight or flight response. But what happens in the law enforcement community is you never come back out of that threat response, right? So it's just this continual boop, boop, boop, and what that does to your body long-term, man, it breaks down your body and it leaves you exposed to just

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (58:42.689)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (58:51.315)

disease, fatigue, complications, burnout. It just tanks you as an individual. That's why you have to learn how to, on your days off, to reset, to engage that parasympathetic nervous system and allow your body to rest and reset because that's what you need.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (58:56.429)

Yeah,

Critical Aspects Podcast (59:16.583)

Right, that's when your body goes back to base level, right? Everything goes back to normal operating and you're like, okay, threat's gone, I'm good, I'm safe, but in law enforcement, that's a continual thing. It's just always pegged out. You're just flat out all the time.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (59:33.389)

It doesn't stop either when you get done. mean, I'm not driving my car like I'm driving my police car, don't get me wrong, but you're there. You see stuff sometimes you think is happening, it's not. no, that's not a robbery. All right, it's just a guy walking. But you're still kind of like hanging around like you said. And it's stress and stress is a killer. And if your job is that stressful, you've got to really look at, is it worth it? I mean,

Critical Aspects Podcast (59:36.872)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (59:50.376)

Yep.

Critical Aspects Podcast (59:58.791)

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (01:00:00.257)

Change your life like I did. I mean, I'm driving around in a freaking RV across the country and it's, wow, I would have never thought I would do something like this. And it saved my life, man. It's been glorious. Let me tell you that, so.

Critical Aspects Podcast (01:00:11.635)

That's awesome. Well, Eric, I'm gonna put your, I'll put your information in the show notes. I'll put your Instagram in there and all of that. That way if anybody wants to reach out or they got any questions, they can definitely get in contact with you. But I appreciate you jumping on, taking the time. I know we've talked about a lot of different things, but it's good. was just, I enjoyed the conversation, man.

Eric Reynolds - KetoFiveO (01:00:36.205)

All right, me too, man. Thank you, man. Like I said, this helps me and all you, any of you guys, man, I'm telling you, you got a story to tell, tell it. Cause there's someone out there that probably can relate and you'll help. Tell me, I get calls, you know, once in a while out of the blue from a podcast I did two years ago, a good says, thank you, man. So, all right. Thank you, brother.

Critical Aspects Podcast (01:00:51.995)

Absolutely. So I appreciate it. Thanks.