The Longest Mile: May Edition
May has been a crazy month. I started the month off by quitting my job in investment banking. I was working 80-plus hour weeks toward the end and had no time for anything but work. I left because I sat down and asked myself what I actually wanted out of life, and I realized banking was an obstacle preventing me from achieving what I wanted.
Honest part: it was scary (and still is). We have a mortgage. We have a baby on the way. Our expenses are only increasing but something just did not feel right.
I have always wanted to work for myself and own my own business. There is never a perfect time but as the saying goes “There’s no time like the present.” So as a family we decided it was the right time to make the switch.
That gives Mellow Mile my full attention now, alongside a second venture I am joining. The brand is small on purpose, but it is no longer something I run on the side. This is the work.
Two weeks after my last day, Nicole and I went to the West Indies. The trip was planned long before I quit, but the timing felt right. A real reset. Not a phone-in-the-other-room kind of reset, an actual one.
Saltwater fly fishing on the flats. Hikes through volcanic ridges. Slow mornings. Sun on skin. Swimming in the ocean. Perfect recipe for a reset.
Part of the reset was about reducing inflammation in a body that had taken a beating from years of long hours at a desk and lingering shoulder issues from two surgeries.
In December I mentioned looking into BPC-157, the peptide marketed for tendon and connective tissue healing. Five months later, I passed on it. The FDA restricted compounding pharmacies from producing it for human use and has a follow-up meeting July 23rd–24th. Until there is real human clinical data, I am not willing to be the experiment.
So I looked for something with a longer track record and came across acupuncture.
I am three sessions in, the difference is more noticeable than any deep tissue or sports massage I have had. Less stiffness in the morning. More range of motion. Inflammation through the shoulder and traps dropped from a constant background hum to something I only notice when I push it.
Beyond the joint stuff, it makes you relax in a way that is hard to describe. You lie still for forty-five minutes. Your nervous system downshifts. You leave feeling like you slept for twelve hours. For someone coming off 80-hour weeks, that alone was worth it.
The science behind it has caught up with the practice.
Acupuncture triggers the central nervous system to release endorphins and natural pain-blocking compounds. When researchers blocked opioid receptors in test subjects, pain relief dropped, confirming the mechanism is chemical, not placebo. Studies also show a local release of adenosine at the needle site, which reduces inflammation directly. For joint and tendon issues specifically, it reaches connective tissue that massage cannot, producing a longer post-treatment effect. A 2025 systematic review found outcomes comparable to, and in some cases better than, NSAIDs or standard physical therapy for shoulder conditions.
The decision to quit, the trip, the acupuncture, the work ahead all play a part in stripping out what does not belong and making space for what does.
- Thomas