Podcast 026: Jet Lag and Shift Work

Listen to this if you are interested in my impressions from the business trip I took to London UK. Things did not turn out as expected. The Surya Centre soon converted from a juice bar to a dance hall with booze, the owner stiffed us for the products we shipped, so in the end it did not turn out great.

Returning from a three week trip to Europe, Prague and London, visiting family, and attending a trade show. Adjusting to the change in time zones, something that is fairly hard on the body. Appreciating just how difficult it is to be working jobs that involve shift work. Martin says its pretty much “the worst invention ever”.

Staying within two or three time zones will not cause much trouble, but when you start making nine or ten hour shifts, it’s very rough on the body’s internal clock.

The theme of this Podcast is the idea of change and its effect on our health and lifestyle. Like all biological creatures, we naturally resisting change. We go to great ends, to continue doing what we’ve always done. The only thing that forces us to change, is getting to the point where we can no longer continue without severe consequences.

Unfortunately for many of us, this means we’re doomed to become ill, since so many of our everyday habits that we cling to are not the healthiest. As we continue to get worse, hopefully we reach a point where we realize that we must make a change in our lifestyle, lest we remain sick until the day we die.

If this all sounds very bleak, it is only to create the realization in each and every one of us, that we don’t have to wait until it’s too late. We all have the power to make the change we wish to see in the world, if we make it now!

Podcast 026: Jet Lag and Shift Work

Scott Paton: Welcome back everybody. You are listening to the Life Enthusiast Co-Op podcast and I am your co-host Scott Paton and a very special welcome back to our co-host Martin Pytela. Hey, Martin, you are back from a big trip.

Martin Pytela: Hey Scott, it was big indeed. Three weeks overseas, I tell you, I am glad to be home.

Scott Paton: You were in London, England right?

Martin Pytela: Oh, yeah, I started out in the Czech Republic, spent some time in Prague, spent some time with my family.

Scott Paton: Wow.

Martin Pytela: That was great. You know, it’s kind of…

Scott Paton: When was the last time you were back in Prague?

Martin Pytela: Two years.

Scott Paton: Two years, okay.

Martin Pytela: Yeah. I go back and forth quite a bit and I tell you, I every time I go over the time zones doing the jet set thing, I can just feel how it really messes with the body’s internal clock. I don’t know about this international travel. When you stay within one or two, maybe three time zones, that’s quite okay. When you go nine and ten hour shifts…

Scott Paton: That’s a big shift.

Martin Pytela: Not healthy.

Scott Paton: That’s an interesting comment because I used to work midnights in my previous life in the grocery industry, I started off as a stocker and I would work midnight until 8.30 am in the summer times, when I was off of… and finished university right for the year, that’s how I would make money to pay for it and that was always quite an adjustment going from… you know getting up at 7 in the morning to going to bed at 7 in the morning.

Martin Pytela: Yes, that’s really about the same thing. Shift work, it’s one of the most horrible inventions I can think of.

Scott Paton: So, you were in Prague. You saw your family.

Martin Pytela: Yes, I was.

Scott Paton: Had a great visit. What… had it changed at all in the last two years since your last visit?

Martin Pytela: Yeah. There are definitely changes. You can see how the economy is booming. I mean all of the Czech Republic there is industry coming in, there are automobile manufacturers, there is a new plant that’s building some Korean cars and Citroens. The Volkswagen is building a Skoda plant. There is employment booming, prices going up, everything is just peachy.

Scott Paton: [laughs] Cool and then from Prague…

Martin Pytela: And the Canadian dollar buys less and less.

Scott Paton: Right.

Martin Pytela: And the US dollar, well, that’s even worse.

Scott Paton: Yeah. Yeah.

Martin Pytela: Oh, terrible.

Scott Paton: And then from there you went to London, England.

Martin Pytela: To London, yeah. Yeah, that was the big deal, that was the highlight of the trip. Of course, we are setting up the Twilight Star Chamber in London, UK and that’s the rejuvenation station. I am sure…

Scott Paton: We talked about that…

Martin Pytela: We talked about it before some.

Scott Paton: Yeah in a couple of our previous podcasts, we have talked, we have gone into quite a bit of detail about it.

Martin Pytela: So, the main purpose of that process is to energize a person and to restructure the water inside the body as opposed to having to take products that will take the structured water in, you take the entire client, patient, and put it into a… I guess like in the oven and roast it like a chicken on a spit.

Scott Paton: [laughs] That’s very cool.

Martin Pytela: Yeah, indeed.

Scott Paton: And what… you know, I have assumed you met some fascinating people in London.

Martin Pytela: Sorry, I didn’t quite hear you.

Scott Paton: I assume you met some fascinating people in London.

Martin Pytela: Oh, yes, we have. Yes. The company that we are cooperating with is owned by a real estate magnate, the fellow is… oh, a fascinating fellow. He is buying up houses all around London and converting them into condos and doing just great, thank you.

Scott Paton: [laughs]

Martin Pytela: You know some guys they just seem to be able to do very impactful things and are successful and doing it on a large scale and you keep wondering, well, I am not any less intelligent than him. I wonder why he is so good at it. He is swimming in it. He picked me up in his oh, fine little Maserati that he spent something like half a million dollars on.

Scott Paton: Wow.

Martin Pytela: You know and it is just a toy. [laughs]

Scott Paton: Right. [laughs]

Martin Pytela: Anyway, it was really cool because in the trade show I was talking to one of his employees. He is a nutritionist and he says, “So, Martin, what do you think this Star Chamber is? Is that like going to be of interest to people who are like in the celebrity in the limelight?” and I said, “Yeah. It should be, should be.” He says, “So, you think like I should maybe call some of my better clients” and then he dropped a few names like “Oh, Bianca Jagger, you think she might be interested?”

Scott Paton: Oh.

Martin Pytela: And I said, “Well, she is getting older. She should be.”

Scott Paton: [laughs]

Martin Pytela: So, I wonder if he is really going to call her and I wonder if she is really going to come.

Scott Paton: That would be something if she did.

Martin Pytela: Sure is.

Scott Paton: Yeah. You have the whole Rolling Stones in there looking like they are back in their 20s.

Martin Pytela: Oh, you know, that’s going to be something else and we will take credit for it.

Scott Paton: [laughs]

Martin Pytela: Oh, dear… okay, so, if Keith Richards starts looking like his younger brother…

Scott Paton: Yeah.

Martin Pytela: Well, we’ll know where that came from.

Scott Paton: That’s right. That’s right. It is everyone keep watching the Rolling Stones because you are going to see them grow younger before your eyes.

Martin Pytela: Oh, dear. Yeah.

Scott Paton: They should seem ageless.

Martin Pytela: So, what else can be said about London? Well, I tell you London is a busy, busy, busy place and everything seems to be built about two-third scale. Cars are smaller, streets are narrower, the bathtubs are shorter, everything is smaller. To a North American, it is a strange experience.

Scott Paton: Yeah. There is not a lot of room in London, is there?

Martin Pytela: No. No. It’s crowded and it’s… I mean it’s pretty, green, all of that, but very crowded and very busy and it has got similar kind of air to it, to me as I remember New York where everybody is busy and aggressive and go getter and you know, got to do it, got to do it.

Scott Paton: Yeah. Well, it is a major financial center and that would be one of the driving characteristics.

Martin Pytela: But important thing here is if any of our European folks are listening to it, especially here in the UK, you can now visit suryacentre.com where situations are being described. You can find the address and the services offered and not only is there a… the Star Chamber there, but there is nutritionist advice and several healing therapies are being offered.

Scott Paton: Oh, good.

Martin Pytela: It’s quite interesting. The trade show where we were launching this new business is called Mind Body and Spirit, and that was the 34th annual show of this name.

Scott Paton: Wow.

Martin Pytela: And it is sort of all the… I don’t know… I don’t dare to call it new age, but it is probably the best name I could come up with although there were every possible spiritual expression was there; there were Sufis and Muslims and there were Bahais and Christians and everybody under one roof getting along just fine, thank you.

Scott Paton: Oh, well, that is good to know [laughs] and I assume that this was, since it is the 34th and it is in London, it wasn’t like 17 stalls. It was probably a couple of football fields’ worth of people….

Martin Pytela: It was about that size, yeah. Lot of seminars and lot of booths from aromatherapy to Zoroastrianism.

Scott Paton: Yeah, people are really getting into this. They are really looking for something different, aren’t they?

Martin Pytela: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I met a good number of very interesting health practitioners. One of the really cool experiences there for me was meeting Nikolai Nasikovskii, he is a fellow from Ukraine, from Kiev, and he practices something called visceral manipulation or visceral therapy. It is sort of like massage and chiropractic for the organs, on the inside as opposed to… you know, instead of just giving you a back rub and dealing with the spine, he actually goes in after the liver and gallbladder and the colon and finds where they are properly placed and where they are not and finds where there are some spasms or not and massages it slowly and gently and works out the kinks from inside the body.

Scott Paton: Wow.

Martin Pytela: It’s amazing. I mean I have had a nagging problem with one of my legs. You know it just was seizing up on me from standing eight hours on the concrete floor in the show.

Scott Paton: Right. Right. That’s to be expected.

Martin Pytela: Well, need not have been expected, but I was hurting. Anyway, so, he laid me down, he said, “Show me where it hurts” and it was out back somewhere on my lower back and so he says, “Well, the cause of that is not there” and reaches through the belly in towards my spine and squeezes something there. He says, “Does this hurt?” [laughs]

Scott Paton: [laughs]

Martin Pytela: Oh, yes, it did hurt. So, then he says, “Well, push against it” and in something like five minutes, I was free of all the pain, all the symptoms. It was just “shh” gone.

Scott Paton: Wow.

Martin Pytela: Yeah, I am telling you, impressive.

Scott Paton: That is.

Martin Pytela: Anyway, he was talking only in Russian or Ukrainian and one day his translator didn’t show up and so, he borrowed me for half a day and so I was watching him do the work on other people. I was impressed.

Scott Paton: And translating.

Martin Pytela: Oh, yeah, I was translating, yeah.

Scott Paton: How many different languages do you speak Martin?

Martin Pytela: Well, I can communicate in Russian, Czech, Polish, German, and English.

Scott Paton: Wow.

Martin Pytela: And that would be that, so I guess five, right?

Scott Paton: Yeah, yeah, that’s very cool.

Martin Pytela: Well, I keep forgetting; you know like English these days is my primary.

Scott Paton: Right. Right, but I guess it doesn’t take you long if you are back in the Czech Republic for it to all start coming back to you.

Martin Pytela: Oh, yeah. That’s not a problem, yeah. It’s not a problem. Yeah, I saw my brother. He is looking very majestic after he put on about 60 pounds.

Scott Paton: Oh, no.

Martin Pytela: [laughs] I said, “Brother, you are not going to outlive me and you are the younger one” and then as a joke he was introducing me as his younger brother.

Scott Paton: Oh, is that right?

Martin Pytela: Oh, yeah. Because now I am about four years older than he, but at this point I am looking younger than he is. Because he is just not living the healthy life; he is just feeding himself in restaurants and living the European, whatever thing he is doing.

Scott Paton: That lifestyle.

Martin Pytela: Yeah.

Scott Paton: So, did you give him any Exsula Superfoods or a lecture on healthy eating?

Martin Pytela: Oh, you know, when he is ready, one of the worst things if you would know is to try and be a prophet in your hometown.

Scott Paton: Yes.

Martin Pytela: Or tell your relatives that you actually know something or that you amount to something.

Scott Paton: [laughs]

Martin Pytela: [laughs] Have you ever tried to offer advice to your loved ones?

Scott Paton: No. I am the same as you. I let them ask me questions. Otherwise, I don’t volunteer too much.

Martin Pytela: Yeah.

Scott Paton: For the same reason.

Martin Pytela: It just has never worked.

Scott Paton: No. No. It’s funny. So, who else did you meet at this trade show? It sounds absolutely fascinating.

Martin Pytela: Well, I am going to be soon introducing some new products into the mix. I have learnt about some new energy devices, energy clearing devices, where you are definitely going to be more in the line of just a general personal environment. You know just getting the energetics right.

Scott Paton: Oh, very interesting.

Martin Pytela: Getting the electromagnetic stuff from the computers and things that work in our environment. I am quite happy with the ADR line of products that we have and I found things that work at a greater intensity and faster or in more different areas of application. So, we will be introducing that.

Scott Paton: Cool.

Martin Pytela: I don’t know. I don’t have it ready on the website, so, it is not much point announcing it too soon.

Scott Paton: Well, we will probably do another podcast talking about all that and as somebody that is you know we are talking away and I have three computer monitors on my desk and two computers underneath it and my son has a desk beside it with his computer on it, so, I am always very interested in what I can do to cut down on all that electromagnetic stuff.

Martin Pytela: Yes. I am sure this is going to be coming up as a big issue for a lot of people. Just the overall wellness and well being.

Scott Paton: That’s right. Cool.

Martin Pytela: So, managing the personal space, managing the personal time, it will be a big issue.

Scott Paton: Excellent.

Martin Pytela: Yep, I don’t know what else; I didn’t organize my thoughts well enough. I apologize for that.

Scott Paton: Well, Martin…

Martin Pytela: I met a good bunch of people I tell you.

Scott Paton: Martin, it sounds like… I know you just got back a day or two ago and it sounds like you are still getting used to the fact that you are no longer in London, England and I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day because I know when you go away for a few weeks, when you come back there is, even though people do the best they can to do the work that you are supposed to be doing when you are there, it piles up and piles up and piles up and I am sure that you have been snowed under since you have returned.

Martin Pytela: Yes. You are right; unfortunately, my desk here has a fairly high stack of messages that I am supposed to still follow-up on.

Scott Paton: Right and so, we appreciate you taking time out of your day to talk to us instead of answering all those messages and so… and I think today what we will do is we will… we’ve come kind of to the end of our time anyway, it has been about 15 minutes, which is our goal, and I hope everybody has enjoyed a little bit of a glimpse into the jet setting life of Martin [laughs] and when are you planning your next trip to London?

Martin Pytela: That’s the good thing. We have introduced the Exsula Superfoods to London.

Scott Paton: Oh….

Martin Pytela: And they are taking to it very well.

Scott Paton: Good.

Martin Pytela: It’s… I can’t say flying off the shelf, but certainly walking away at reasonable quantities…

Scott Paton: Nice.

Martin Pytela: And so we will be having to go back to do staff training and the Star Chamber is getting fired up and I will have to go there to discuss details and do staff training. So, I will probably be having to go there more often than I would wish to. I will be back to London. So, all of you British people, write to us. Tell me what you want. We’ll make plans and get together. I can’t wait to sit down and have some bangers and mash; actually not.

Scott Paton: [laughs]

Martin Pytela: I tell you something, I was so pleased that I started finding juice bars where I could order a smoothie instead of all the classic you know eggs and sausage and bacon for breakfast. I walked past a few of those and I was thinking, “Oh, boy, not for me. Not anymore.”

Scott Paton: Cool. All right. Well, thank you very much for joining us Martin. To all our listeners, we appreciate you taking time out of your busy day too. If you want to know more about the Star Chamber or Exsula Superfoods or any of the other wonderful Life Enthusiast Co-Op products, you can head over to www.life-enthusiast.com and there is just tons and tons of information there. If you are interested in listening to us talk about a number of the different products and alternative health things that you can do to be vital and everything else in your life, head over to lifeenthusiast.podomatic.com and you will be able to listen to all our previous podcasts. My name is Scott Paton and our co-host Martin Pytela, any last words Martin before we go?

Martin Pytela: No. Just happy to be back.

Scott Paton: [laughs]

Martin Pytela: Restoring vitality to you and to the planet. Thank you folks.

Scott Paton: Bye bye.

Author: Martin Pytela